Power Hover - A surprisingly brilliant hover-boarding game

There's something decidedly cool about Power Hover. Carving through gorgeous, simple cartoon levels, sweeping from side to side with the perfectly floaty controls.

That's not to say there isn't challenge here. In fact it's a surprisingly tough experience. But there's such a simple joy to weaving through its obstacles and trick-points that it's almost impossible to get frustrated.

It's a premium game, it's an awful lot of fun, and it captures perfectly what I imagine the sensation of swooshing around on a hover board would be like.

It is good. You control the game by tapping on the left or right of the screen to turn in that direction. There are grind rails you automatically slide across, and jumps that you'll pull tricks off as well.

The aim of the game is getting from A to B. You accelerate automatically, and the camera swoops around you as you go. It can be a little disorientating at first when it suddenly flips round and you're floating on what was a wall, but it's also pretty darn impressive.

There are batteries to collect too. These tie in with a plot about a thief that's stolen all of the energy from your village. Grab batteries and you can charge up buildings. Charged up buildings give you extra lives.

Yup, Power Hover has some pretty strong arcade heritage. You get a number of lives each level, which let you respawn at the last checkpoint you passed through. Run out and you have to start from the beginning of the level again.

It means you need to know the levels pretty well, but they're pretty well sized so there's not much to memorise. The game is generous as well, giving you plenty escape routes and not punishing you if you disappear off the screen for a short time.

There are boss levels too. These involve staying alive for a set distance. The farther you get past that distance the more points you get and the higher your star-rating.

Is is yeah. I was pleasantly surprised by Power Hover. It goes in its own direction, blending together a lot of the newest ideas on the App Store but creating something fresh in the process.

The controls are great, the sweeping curves of your turns are almost hypnotic, and the simple visuals are some of the best I've seen this year.

Yes it can be a little hard sometimes, but there's some impressive gaming to be had here, and you should definitely grab it.