Doctor Who Infinity review - "Match-three meets fan service"

Doctor Who Infinity developer Tiny Rebel Games is somehow affiliated with Tiny Rebel Brewery, which makes rather lovely beverages.

I don't much care for Doctor Who these days, but I do really like nice beer.

That's precisely the kind of balanced outlook that makes me the perfect candidate to review Doctor Who Infinity, I feel.

Who-style ropey logic aside, Doctor Who Infinity is a fairly competent match-three battler that will likely satisfy fans of the series, and few others.

You swipe to freely move coloured baubles on a grid. Matching three or more blue baubles contributes towards your level objective. Matching the others does things like charge special abilities or attack enemy blocks that have been deposited in the game grid.

Every now and then, your opponent (some rubbery villain or other) will interfere with the game grid in some way.

This can actually get really annoying, as reaching the required bauble limit within a limited move count can place you at the whim of subsequent chained matches that fall into place. It's all a bit of a lottery at times.

That said, there's a genuine knack to taking an elaborate detour around the grid to knock a few matches into place.

The presentation here is quite slick - or at least, the bits in between the very basic puzzle sections are.

It's all drawn as a digital comic, complete with basic animation and a voice-over from one of the characters (starting with Missy). It's rather nicely handled, in a homespun British sort of way.

The obvious lack of budget is covered with typical British humour and ingenuity - rather like the show, you might say. Missy's early narration and impression of the Doctor (the old one, though more feature) is an amusingly effective and efficient narrative device.

The whimsically hum-drum nature of the game's plot will pretty quickly lose the interest of any non-fans, but the writing is certainly colourful and peppy. It's all very Doctor Who, in whatever way that means to you.

And that pretty much goes for the game. Its match-three action is fairly by the numbers and uninspiring in isolation, but is mechanically competent enough to entertain any follower of the source material.

Enough to carry them through to the bits that really matter at any rate. The hand-drawn between-level sections have a warm style and verve that will be catnip to Doctor Who fans.

Who, at the end of the day, are the whole reason for this game's existence. Cue cheesy smile, warpy sound-effect, and end titles.