Rip Off

The App Store has its fair share of what the more cynical of us may describe as 'clones' or 'cash-ins', but few are as blatant about their lifting of ideas as Colorbox's slash-'em-up.

Rip Off draws inspiration from a variety of portable games and manages to fuse them into a product that - whilst isn't radically different - is distinct enough to bring something new to the table.

Something borrowed

It can be a bit lazy to compare elements of one game to another, but with Rip Off it’s practically unavoidable. At the outset, you can't fail to notice the presentation and logo are heavily based on Sony’s God game Patapon, right down to the font of the menus.

And in a nod to Rovio's famous aggravated avian, the loose(ish) storyline centres on a bird who must protect his unhatched brothers and sisters from the various enemies that attempt to steal them.

The aim is to get as high a score as possible before the end of your turn by defeating these foes, with bonuses awarded for combos and trophies given for completing objectives. Egg on the face

Continuing with the facsimile theme, the core gameplay takes its cue from Fruit Ninja. Evildoers are defeated by swiping the touchscreen with your finger - the main difference being that your moves are relative to the location of your bird. The fact that your movements are governed by your bird's position means that they just don’t feel as intuitive as in Halfbrick's fruity slasher, and often result in frantic movements that cause you to trip over yourself. The dastardly adversaries themselves try to steal your bird's eggs using methods as simple as picking them up to more devious means like teleportation. The game ends when all your eggs have been stolen or if you accidentally swipe the bombs that appear intermittently.

Ripped to shreds

All of the borrowed ingredients in Rip Off combine to form a relatively absorbing cocktail that will please high score enthusiasts and combo junkies, while the Patapon-themed art style looks very pretty indeed. Rip Off, therefore, possesses enough quality and longevity to provoke that familiar 'one-more-go' mentality, though not quite as fiercely as its iOS influences. Given the flagrant similarities to the titles it unashamedly pays tribute to and the inferior swipe mechanics, it's difficult then to praise Rip Off too highly despite some novel ideas and the polished presentation.