Super Tiny Leap

Being airborne is, for most of us at least, a graceless and brief exertion. There's no great surge of weightlessness, no feeling of soaring through the sky - just an embarrassingly short disconnection from the ground followed by a disappointing thud.

That's why games like Super Tiny Leap exist - to let us experience the thrills associated with jumping really high without having to deal with the limitations of our weak human bodies. And there are thrills aplenty to be had here.

The game is a riff on Doodle Jump. A robot starts jumping at the bottom of the screen and it's your job to help him get as high as he can. Rather than tilting your device to send him towards pre-existing platforms, you have to tap the screen to create boxes for him to push off from.

There are three game modes available after you've bought the full game, each offering its own take on the simple mechanic. The first, Basic, gives you a set number of boxes to position on the fly. You can collect more as you leap, but once they run out your poor robot will plunge to his doom.

There are a few bombs scattered here and there, which kill you with a single touch, but your main challenge is your own dexterity. Xtrem mode, on the other hand, is pretty much all bombs. You have unlimited boxes, but precision and last minute dodges are the order of the day here.

Finally, there's Binary mode, which gives you two robots to guide up the screen. What ensues is one of the most frantic gaming experiences iOS devices have to offer as you tap to keep the twin androids in the air while making sure they don't smash each other to pieces.

Super Tiny Leap is an entertaining way to waste a few minutes, and its leaps and jumps are quite often enough to lead you breathless, especially in Binary mode. It's gorgeous to look at, too, and a chiptune soundtrack rounds the package off nicely.

It might not have the longevity of some other titles, but as simple touchscreen platformers go Super Tiny Leap is pretty damn impressive.