Recurse

Dancing and motion games for mobile devices have something of a bad reputation. While precious few have surfaced on the App Store, the ones that have - like the shove-fest that was Papa Quash - have left potential buyers feeling bruised and confused.

Recurse is the game to change all of this. Just like the Wii's Just Dance series, it challenges players to contort their bodies into specific poses to earn points.

What's amazing about Recurse is how well the interface works on an iPad. After playing with the game for a few minutes, you'll wonder why there aren't more games that use the iPad's front-facing camera to mimic motion controls.

When I was told to review Recurse, I was initially a little wary. I stand at a lanky 6'5" (1.95m) and have to reconfigure my living room every time I play the Wii to make sure I can stand far enough away from the sensor bar to be seen.

Recurse has no problems in this department. After propping my iPad up on a book that was sitting on my desk [at a height of 33" (0.83m)] I only had to take two or three steps away from the desk before I could start playing Recurse properly.

Once I did, I couldn't shake the feeling that I had stepped back into a '90s game show. The sight of myself bending, twisting, and contorting around phantom floating blocks made me smile despite how foolish I looked.

Recurse's real potential is as a multiplayer game. While it doesn't offer enough content or gameplay modes to amuse a single player for long, it would make an excellent impromptu party game or a means of entertaining children during a rainy afternoon.

Gameplay is limited to short (roughly 30-second) runs split amongst three modes: Shuffle, Slide, and Survival. Shuffle and Slide are both timed, but Survival can go on indefinitely, as the game only ends when a player touches a red block three times.

There's no avoiding the fact that Recurse is a gimmicky game, but that needn't put you off. The solo gameplay element is a bit limited, but Recurse will come into its own when you play it with friends.