Burn it All - Journey to the Sun

Is the release of Journey to the Sun an admission that those behind the original Burn it All needed a second try?

Don't get us wrong: this is no revolution. The focus of play remains on burning a series of ropes in order to clear a path to the top of the stage, but rather than employing the kind of complicated ruleset that dogged the first Burn it All, this follow-up keeps things far simpler.

Indeed, it actually lives up to its name: this time, you really do have to burn it all.

A large portion of Burn it All – Journey to the Sun's opening effectively acts as a tutorial, where your only job is to drag one of the game's leads – a series of flames bearing faces – up to rope fuses dangling across the screen in order to set them alight.

The quicker they turn to cinder, the better, as each and every level runs against the clock. Indeed, the faster you clear a stage the more diamonds you pick up as reward, which – in typical fashion – later on opens up the final batch of levels.

But things gradually get more complicated, and this is largely to the benefit of the game as a whole. Different coloured ropes, for instance, burn at different speeds, and some are out of reach until others have been burnt to a crisp. Knowing which rope to set off first soon becomes key to success.

The flames themselves also offer an amount variation, with the initial red spark followed up by a blue spark that's able to set fire to ropes without fuses and a green flame that can burn through objects that aren't typically flammable, like rocks.

As the breadth of your arsenal increases, so Burn it All – Journey to the Sun also dishes out more enemies. Early on, as well as taking your flames to each and every rope on offer you'll also have to singe a bat or two before the clock runs down.

It feels like a challenge if only because said vermin are moving targets, nicely counterbalancing the more static ropes.

There's a nice symmetry to the patterns the ropes form as the levels grow more elaborate, and the addition of knots (which tie the ropes together and spread the fire in a multitude of directions) adds to the strategic element of play.

Indeed, when you consider the influence picking one rope over another can have on completely altering the end result, it's clear Burn it All – Journey to the Sun is a true thinking man's puzzler.

No fuel for fun

Yet, despite a setup that thankfully sidesteps the over elaboration that beset the original Burn it All, there's arguably something missing from Journey to the Sun.

That missing element is fun. There's no question that, on almost every level, this second string to Burn it All's bow is a better game than its predecessor, but the motivation behind what you're required to do never really extends beyond initial curiosity.

The whole thing is just far too ordinary and unremarkable to make its mark in what's long been a crowded market on iPhone. Once Burn it All – Journey to the Sun has fully decanted its box of tricks, the appeal begins to fall away.

Which leaves the franchise in a tricky position. In whatever form it takes, it appears there just isn't enough about Burn it All to sustain interest.