Random Heroes 3

No one does physical-style controls on a touchscreen quite as well as Ravenous Games, and Random Heroes 3 cements its reputation at the pinnacle of that tower.

The action here is fast and furious, and not once do you feel like the simple on-screen buttons have let you down. They're reliable, precise, and just feel right.

The game underneath them is a Random Heroes game. You jog through levels full of pixel-art monsters, shooting them to bits with a growing arsenal of heavy weaponry.

And while it doens't deviate too far from the template set down by its predecessors, it's still one of the finest arcade blasters you're likely to see on the App Store.

Thick necks

After a brief and meaningless chunk of story, you're dropped into the action. At heart the game is a violence-oriented side-scrolling shooter. Get from A to B, kill everything dumb enough to put its face in front of your gun.

To begin with you've only got a pistol, but using the coins scattered around the game you can quickly upgrade to something with a little more kick.

You hold A to fire, and your finger will be stuck down hard for most of the game. Killing anything results in a shower of money, letting you beef up your guns and buy new avatars.

The different characters aren't just aesthetic though. New warriors give you better stats, and some even boast specials that change the game a little. The Android, for example, can see how much health the bad guys have left.

A new addition this time around is skulls. These are hidden around the levels and you can spend them on upgrades or continues. They're pretty scarce, but the levels are small enough that heading back to the start is never too much of a chore.

The variety of things you have to kill is pretty mind-boggling. There are stumbling zombies, bouncing pedestals, rocket launcher-equipped heavies, and all manner of other beasties to fill full of lead.

If you want to earn all three stars on a level you need to kill everything in it, finish under a certain time, and find the secret star that's hidden somewhere along the way.

It's much easier said than done, and means you'll likely be heading back to levels you've already got to the end of when you're a little more tooled-up to finish them completely.

The violence here will feel a little old-hat if you're not enamoured with the Random Heroes franchise, and less seasoned players will likely find the going gets a little too tough once they're about half way through the first set of levels.

But this is an arcade shooter crafted with love. A sparkling blend of retro violence and sharp platforming that showcases the talents of the team at Ravenous.

Yes, it's the same old Random Heroes, but the same old Random Heroes is better than most of the other shooters on the App Store by a mile.

And there's enough new content and new ideas here that fans of the series are going to lap it up.