Crush cute animals to stay alive in stone-slamming arcade game Smash Jungle

Smash Jungle wants you to be cruel. To keep the sentient stone head that you control alive you need the blood of cute animals.

It starts with you holding your finger on the screen to hoist the head above the jungle floor.

Then, when you see a raccoon, frog, or bird passing by underneath, you let go and the stone head slams to the ground.

You keep doing this as at the top of the screen your life bar slowly drips away. Once it has depleted, the cloaked figure known as Death arrives to kill you.

Death strikes you with its scythe, and that's it - Game Over. Your score is tallied, compared against your friends on the leaderboard, and you start again.

There is a way to beat Death, though, so that you can survive for longer. You need to become skilled in the art of squashing animals to do it.

And the longer you survive the more of Smash Jungle's secrets you'll unveil. I got loads of points upon shaking a monkey from a tree and then crushing it.

But there are also hazards to avoid that, if touched, will deplete your health quicker. These include bombs and porcupines and, I suspect, more I've yet to see.

It's a compelling one-touch action arcade game that demands precise timing to master.

Plus, it's the work of Scattle, who contributed music to Hotline Miami, so you know your ears will be kept happy as you play.

You can purchase Smash Jungle for 69p / 99c on the App Store right now.