Game Reviews

Bullistic Unleashed

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iOS
| Bullistic Unleashed
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Bullistic Unleashed
|
iOS
| Bullistic Unleashed

You can think of Bullistic Unleashed as a kind of a Boy's Own version of Angry Birds, where strategic pig-bothering plays second fiddle to the simple manly pleasures of smashing things up with a self-satisfied roar.

Sure, Bullistic Unleashed might be another side-scrolling physics-based destruct-'em-up, but at least it has the grace to do things a bit differently. Bulls replace birds, for instance, and catapults are replaced by huge stretchy balls.

Buy now, pay later

Needless to say, it's not a game that takes itself particularly seriously, taking as it does the old 'bull in a china shop' analogy to its logical extreme.

The aim is to fling in the face of rampant consumerism, catapulting bulls across mall-themed stages and racking up points based on the sheer amount of damage you can do.

Get your trajectory right and your bull ricochets off springs, screams across speed boosts, and blasts off explosive barrels, smashing through window displays and pulping hapless shoppers in the process.

Destroy enough to pass the percentage threshold on each stage and you'll progress to the next level.

A testes of skill

Despite the game's accessible setup, reaching your target can be tougher than it looks, with increasingly convoluted stage layouts and additional bull types demanding a more considered approach to carnage.

What starts out as carefree stress-reliever quickly turns into a bracing puzzler as you plan the perfect route for mass destruction and hone your aiming skills

Indeed, Bullistic Unleashed's combination of pre-match analysis and satisfyingly visceral devastation does a fair old job of squeezing the most from its shallow, simplistic setup.

It even takes an extra stab at longevity by hiding three hard-to-reach medals on each stage, adding achievements and encouraging 100 per cent destruction, should you get the completist bug.

Seen one, seem 'em all

Sadly, Bullistic Unleashed's distinct lack of variety means you'll probably tire of the challenge long before you've secured every last reward. Despite its slick presentation and unabashed sense of humour, the game's repetitive nature and practically horizontal difficulty curve struggle to sustain interest.

That probably won't matter if you're after the occasional mindless thrill, but everyone else will probably wish that Bullistic Unleashed had a little bit more going on between its horns.

Bullistic Unleashed

An entertaining, if underdeveloped, physics-based puzzler that's just far too shallow to sustain momentum
Score
Matt Wales
Matt Wales
Following a lifetime of adventure on the high seas, swabbing the editorial decks of the good ship IGN and singing freelance shanties across far-flung corners of the gaming press, Matt hung up his pirate hat and turned his surf-seared gaze toward the murky mysteries of the handheld gaming world. He lives to sound the siren on the best mobile games out there, and he can't wait to get kraken.