Potshot Pirates sailing onto iPhone and iPad tonight

Angry Birds in 3D - why hasn't anyone else thought of that? The answer is that they have, it's just that the games haven't been very good.

Potshot Pirates looks like a good bet to buck that trend and realise the premise. It's out now on the New Zealand App Store, so will be hitting the UK at midnight tonight.

Potshot Pirates certainly calls to mind Rovio's modern classic - it sees you flinging things at rudimentary structures housing bright green creatures. But it also calls to mind Boom Blox on the Nintendo Wii.

If you haven't played or heard of Boom Blox, you should hunt down the nearest Wii and give it a go. It's a beautifully tactile suite of physics and demolition games from the mind of Steven Spielberg. Yes, him.

Anyway, we digress. The point its, Potshot Pirates looks to have a similar aesthetic and a similar chunky physics system that sees you delightedly toppling structures with precision shots.

This is achieved by blasting them with a cannon from the safety of your pirate ship. What makes this more interesting is the fact that you can strap a crew member to each cannon ball, each of which has its own unique abilities.

Yep, it's just like the different birds in Angry Birds.

You can also move your pirate ship around to get a new angle of attack, and unleash a kraken when a level has you truly stumped.