Eets Munchies

Unlike with many video game characters, I can fully sympathise with the Eets Munchies protagonist's plight.

I, too, am incapable of independent thought when hungry. Don't expect to get anything in the way of productivity or sensible conversation when the tum's a-rumblin'.

As such, I'm quite inclined to lend Eets a hand in his single-minded quest to hoover up every last crumb of cake.

The ingredients of this surprisingly dense confection are equal parts Amazing Alex and Lemmings, with a little Worms icing added at the end.

It's the kind of clever, approachable physics-puzzler we used to be inundated with on the App Store, but which is now a little rarer.

The goal is to help the auto-running Eets to his cake through indirect means. You're given a limited selection of tools - from simple platforms to ingenious physics-based contraptions to odd fantastical creatures - to place and orient in a single-screen level.

There are chillies that make Eets jump farther, onions that keep him fixed to the current platform, flying pigs that vomit explosive projectiles (really), and much more. There's also level furniture that can be manually activated, such as springs and projectile-redirecting arrows.

The clever thing about Eets Munchies is that each level element can be used in a variety of different ways. Those springs can ping power-ups just as easily as Eets himself, while wooden platforms can become direction-altering barriers if tilted upright.

Indeed, with each item being susceptible to gravity and momentum, later levels in each world tend to require a tricky chaining of events and gadgets in order to attain full mastery.

You can just head straight for the cake, but only a spot of ingenuity will gain you the three bonus treats stashed throughout each level.

These treats serve to unlock items for you to use in Eets Munchies's level editor - a powerful tool that enables you to create your own elaborate puzzles from scratch, should you be sufficiently patient and creative.

Elsewhere, the art style is bold, cartoony, and just a little bit cheeky, as is the between-level humour. It ties in well with the world, which evokes Worms in both style and explosive deformability.

All in all, it's tough to get too excited about Eets Munchies. As we say, this kind of physics-puzzler used to be ten a penny on the App Store, and its beats are still burned into our brains.

But its tight execution and uncommon polish produce something akin to one of those generous afternoon snacks that almost make you forget about dinner.

Almost.