Splode 'n' Die

Splode 'n' Die has an interesting central idea. Coloured blobs roll down a path and you need to tap various lasers to kill them.

Match three of the same colour and you'll cause a chain reaction that clears a good chunk of the cutesy balls of goo from the screen.

The problem is it's a bit too tough, to the point where you'll just get frustrated and stop playing. That neat idea never quite builds into the intriguing puzzler you want it to.

The game has that now-standard App Store cartoon polish. The goo-blobs are squidgy and engaging, the menus are slick, and there's a three-star rating system at the end of each of the 30 second-long levels.

To start off with you only have to deal with a single stream of blobs. Lasers are positioned along the path they take, and you need to tap them to fire. Hit purple blobs with purple lasers, hit blue blobs with blue lasers.

Then things start to get a bit tactical. There's no way to pop all the blobs with the lasers you've got, so you need to create chains, popping a couple of purples to squidge three blues together and watching as they explode.

After a couple of levels you're dealing with multiple lines of blobs, with lasers scattered all over the screen. It feels like you need an extra pair of hands and slightly wider vision to actually get to grips with things. And then you fail the level.

And in all honesty, there's not much reason to try again. The game is enjoyable enough when it's not being cruel, but once those difficulty spikes hit you realise there are better things you could be doing.

Sure it looks nice and that mechanic feels fresh, but Splode 'n' Die runs out of steam too quickly. You're left with the feeling that, while it'd be nice to see a bit more, it's not really worth the effort.