Loco Motors

I'm lolling about in a sparking, upturned car at the bottom of a concrete valley. Above me, tantalisingly out of reach, is a spinning gear.

I would have grabbed it, had I not set off too fast, with the wrong wheels on my car, and ploughed nose-first into a brick wall suspended above the track.

Slightly ashamed, I head back to the vehicle editor and try and build something that's at the very least going to be able to get me across the finish line.

This time I put the wheels on the wrong way, and even my carefully weighted tug on the string that brings my car snorting and growling to life can't stop me reversing away from the start line.

This is the world of Loco Motors. You build to do better, unlocking news lumps of car as you battle through the increasingly tough levels.

Or if you're anything like me, as you crash into things and somehow manage to skid underneath the finishing line backwards.

The core of the game takes place in the editing suite. There are certain things your car needs to have to work.

First you draw out a frame, before attaching wheels, an engine, a fuel tank, and a cockpit.

You might need a more powerful engine than the one you've got equipped, bouncier wheels, or an extra fuel tank to get you to the end of the track.

There's no specific order you need to put these on, and as long as they're all attached anything goes. Sometimes you'll need a taller car, so you'll balance your cockpit vertically at the top of a spur of frame.

A shorter car needs wheels stuck onto the chassis, and something that's going to get up the more off-road obstacles needs chunkier wheels and beefier suspension.

Creating these contraptions is as easy as dragging and dropping the bits you want into place.

You can erase everything with a few taps, undo your last action, and generally make the most ridiculous vehicles your brain can come up with.

Once you're happy with your creation you tap 'play' and head out to the raceway. Here you drag back on an ignition cord to give your contraption a boost off the line.

The amount of power you kicked into machine at your last attempt at the level is always displayed, so you can fine-tune your drives by tiny percentages, which is essential on most of the levels.

Each of the challenges features three different cogs to collect. The first one is simple, the second one a little tougher, the third one often impossible until you've unlocked something new for your car later in the game.

You'll need to attach wheels to the roof of your vehicle, flip through gaps only just big enough to fit through, and think about how things like weight distribution and height are affecting your chances.

Loco Motors is a clever mix of puzzler and racer that blends together a lot of ideas from other genres and games to make something that looks and feels pretty unique.

It's really simple to get into, and there are enough possibilities for customisation that any vehicles you do end up building are likely to be completely different from your friends'.

Things do sometimes get a little repetitive, and having to play the same level three times in slightly different ways does take the gloss off of proceedings a little, but these are minor niggles.

Loco Motors has enough going for it that it's pretty easy to recommend. If you like games that let you be creative as you play, then this is going to be right up your alley.