Fire Fu - It burns bright, but it doesn't burn for very long
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iOS
| Fire Fu

If you only played the tutorial of Fire Fu, you might be forgiven for thinking it's a sedate little screen-swiper. But then, why would you only play the tutorial of a game, that's a bit weird.

Once the game has walked you through the basics, you're dropped into what can best be described as a maelstrom of spectacular cartoon lunacy.

But there's a question hanging over all of this madness. Namely, is there enough going on on top of the gorgeous visuals and massive gouts of fire to make your purchase worthwhile? And the answer is "sort of".

Sort of? Okay, you're going to have to elaborate

I know, this isn't my first review rodeo. But first, let's elucidate a little more on the actual properties of the game itself. Or, like, how you play it.

It's essentially a twist on the Fruit Ninja formula. There's more of an arcade feel to things though, and a much larger focus on smashing the living turds out of everything that's swarming around the screen.

Your finger controls the titular kung fu power. Scribble on the screen and it bursts into flame beneath your digit. The fire hangs around for a while as well, and any of the critters that dash onto the screen and hit it will take damage.

And there are a lot of critters. Podgy spiders slip down from the top, sheep panic and leg it across the floor, weird blob things flob around and look vile. And you have to burn them. Burn them all.

There are bombs as well. Set one of these on fire and it explodes, costing you a chunk of points. You also get a one-off power-up to use each time you play. You can unlock more of these with the cuddly little coin monsters you earn as you kill.

The action is frantic. There are always massive groups of things encroaching on your terrain. Hacking them down is entertaining, but after a while it does get a little bit samey.

Your extra powers keep things fresh, but once you've overcome that sudden shock of the sheer weight of numbers you're having to take down, you might the whole thing a little bit lacking.

Hmmm, so is it worth a pop?

I'd say so. There's a part of me that thinks this would do better as an ad supported game with an IAP to get rid of the interstitials.

It looks lovely, and it plays really well, but I think that initial outlay is going to put some people off.

Still, this is a bright and spectacular casual game. The hacking and slashing is on point, there's a decent compulsion loop, and while it's not the most memorable game, you'll have fun while it lasts.

Fire Fu - It burns bright, but it doesn't burn for very long

There's a fun game here, but once you've gotten the gist of it, you might not find much else
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.