Tappy Sky review - A simple shooter with a screen-poking twist

Tappy Sky is a game that mixes blasting and simple controls into an interesting if slightly rough-edged pocket-sized arcade experience.

It's a tough proposition, but there's a decent progression scheme that means your ship is always getting stronger as you blast your way through more and more difficult ways.

There's a slight lack of polish here, and hardcore shooter fans might feel like there's something missing. But if you're of a more casual bent then there's an awful lot to like.

Your biplane shoots automatically and flies forward. All you have to control is its height, which you do by tapping on the screen. Tap once to boost upwards and the float back down. It's a system we're all pretty familiar with now.

You'll blast down waves of bad guys, collecting cash as you do. Each level finishes with a boss fight. Complete that and you'll move on to the next challenge.

There's also a weird mining mini-game that sees you pulling cash out of the ground by keeping a bar within a box by tapping the screen. You don't have to engage in it, and you'll still earn cash every time you load up the game.

You spend the money on upgrading your planes or buying completely new ones. There are also keys and tickets that you can spend on new pilots.

There's a but more going on here than with most simple arcade games, but sometimes it feels like it's bitten off a little bit more than it can chew.

When the waves get really tough, getting to the end of a level, let alone beating the boss, is a pretty tall order.

There's also an endless mode that sees you battling to score as many points as you can before you explode. But it bounces along to a pretty similar rhythm to everything else.

The graphics are reasonably solid, but there's a lack of spark here. It's the same blocky sort of style we've seen plenty of times before, and it doesn't work quite as well from a side-on perspective.

All the same this is a game that will keep you entertained for a while. It's not as deep as some might like, and not as shallow as others might expect it to be.

It's definitely worth a crack, especially if you like your gaming somewhere in that midcore middle ground where things are fun but you don't have to think about them too much.