Window Warrior

The concept of reinforcing your virtual defences to keep out incoming monsters is well-established - see Minecraft - Pocket Edition and Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies for proof - but can you really base an entire game around just boarding up windows?

You'd think not, but Window Warrior does a reasonable job of defying its seemingly bland concept to make for an interesting score-attack game. It's just a shame the clumsy touch controls often make it feel like a chore.

Nailing the basics

With a gaggle of cartoony monsters on course to crash through the windows of your house in a minute's time, you have to cover as much of each one with sturdy planks as possible.

Rather than allowing you to pick up the wood yourself, an off-screen 'helper' throws planks across your first-person view. You then have to tap the screen to nail them safely across the glazing, with bonuses for securing the wood at both ends or through other attached pieces.

Hitting the glass heavily results in a penalty, so careful timing is as important as fast tapping skills. At least it should be, but Window Warrior regularly ignores your taps - especially when multiple planks are on screen.

It feels like a minor optimisation issue (we tested the game on the new iPad), but in a frantic high score-attack game with the Game Center leaderboards you can't help but feel the game design is hindering your progress.

Although there's only one gameplay mode, there are three difficulty levels to try out. The pace naturally increases as you go from Easy to Normal to Hard, but with all of them unlocked from the start you're likely to simply stick with the reasonably challenging middle ground.

To boost your score, you can use points earned in-game (or via in-app purchases) to buy power-ups like a Plank Barrage or the rather satisfying Nail Shotgun. You can also complete a checklist of objectives, like nailing ten planks in one round, to increase your score multiplier.

This briefly makes Window Warrior rather addictive, before frustration with the glitchy controls and tedium induced by the lack of variety see you logging off.