Exclusive: B-Boy Brawl: Breakin' Fingers breakdance rhythm-action game coming to iPhone

The rhythm-action genre has done brisk business on iPhone, with the Tap Tap series in particular demonstrating that a multi-touch screen and high quality music playback make happy bedfellows.

We'll no doubt see of these games bursting onto the App Store over the coming years, and the other day we were lucky enough to get a first look at one of them. B-Boy Brawl: Breakin' Fingers, from Bristol developer Mobile Pie, is set to hit the App Store in a couple of months, and it's shaping up very nicely.

So what's it like? Filling the screen is a piece of cardboard - those of you old enough to have survived the breakdancing fad of the '80s will recall these particular items of paraphernalia, upon which frightening youths in shell suits used to throw themselves about - and the ends of your fingers play the role of feet.

Across the top of the screen run prompts, and you need to lift and drop your fingers in response to them. No surprises so far.

The key to the game's appeal, however, is that accuracy is less important than rhythm: it doesn't matter where you hit the cardboard, only that you hit it in time.

This playing mechanic is embedded in a suitably corny '80s scenario. It's all set in a fictional '80s New York, and the aim is to claim turf by beating rival crews at dancing. (I remember these events. They were called 'burns.') Guiding you through this experience is a dancer with the unlikely name of Crazy Tipz.

B-Boy Brawl features eight original tracks from up-and-coming hip hop artists. It's still in development, and still some way from completion, but what we've seen looks very promising. We should be able to tell you more in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.