Round Space review - An endless runner with an angle

It feels as if mobile developers have been engaged in their own private game over the years.

Can they keep finding new ways to frame the trusty old endless runner without fundamentally altering the core concept?

We've had planes, skiers, boats, birds, abstract dots and unicorns. They've been rendered in 2D, 3D, and they've moved left-to-right, down-to-up, and countless variations and combinations in between.

Round Space appears to get a little funky with the format, but it's essentially following a familiar path.

The fact that you're controlling a spaceship isn't remotely fresh. But Round Space's playing field is a little bit different.

Here you're orbiting a tiny 3D planetoid, with a bunch of towering skyscraper-like constructs sticking out at all angles. Thos structures have the unsettling habit of changing their height at will, potentially clobbering your craft out of the sky.

Have you guessed what you need to do? Of course you have! Dodge left and right to avoid the spires. Here that entails tapping the screen to change your direction from one diagonal-forward angle to the other.

Naturally, there are some doodahs to collect, this time a bunch of stars. These can be used to purchase new ships.

We love originality here at PG, but it's not the be all and end all. Few things can guarantee an instant endorphin rush like a decent endless runner.

Unfortunately, Round Space doesn't have that essential feel that will keep you coming back time and again. A large part of that is down to its pace - it just moves along too slowly to really ever raise the pulse.

Then there's those constantly shifting spires, which are somehow simultaneously unpredictable and rather dull. It all gets very repetitive rather fast.

Add in a somewhat imprecise movement system and you have a new endless runner that appears to offer something a little different, but fails to do the basics particularly brilliantly.