Mobile Games Roundup

Zombie Gunship

• iPhone - £0.69. In-app purchases from £0.69 for 10,000 coins to £34.99 for 1.5 million coins.

A video game featuring zombies you say? What are the chances? But wait! This time you're in the gunner seat of a heavily armed AC-130 ground attack aircraft, and we all know that death from above makes it all OK again.

Cynicism aside, Limbic's stylish shift in approach makes a substantial difference, and any indifference is swiftly swept away as you attempt to cut a swathe through the undead hordes from the air.

Similar to the one-off aerial attack levels you might have seen in Call Of Duty and Ghost Recon, the idea is to stop the zombies from breaching the bunker.

Allow so much as one shambling ghoul into the safe haven and you're kicked off the job. But the money you earn for all your kills and rescues can be put towards upgrading your arsenal - something you'll quickly realise is essential if you're going to save humanity from the zombie apocalypse.

With faster reload speed, a better damage spread and faster bullets, you can start to kill more efficiently, and therefore sweep around the map quicker with every passing turn. But with more powerful weapons comes a greater risk of inadvertently wiping out a fleeing human with splash damage - and if three innocents get killed, there's another excuse for the commander to kick you off the job.

But it gets worse for you the longer you survive, with giant lumbering beasts joining the throng, and huge crowds of undead to dispatch from all angles. Keeping your head above water for more than a few minutes at a time is always a tall order, but with its constant drip-feed of rewards to haul you back, it's the kind of game you can lose hours to without even noticing.

Weapons free. You are cleared to engage zombies.

8/10

Roboto

• Xperia Play/Android £1.83.
• Also available on iPhone/iPad £1.99 Universal binary. Price going up 8th August.
• Free online demo.

It's enough to melt your stony heart. Gamer meets gamer. Gamers fall in love, decide to break out on their own and form their own development studio to make little game babies together.

And so here we have Fenix Fire's 'first born', a rather ebullient side-scrolling platformer that wants - more than anything - to put some sunshine back in your day.

Poor awkward teen robot boy Roboto finds himself on a quest to find his lost love, who has inconsiderately blasted off to another galaxy. Cue jump-filled kleptomania!

It's not terrifically original, sadly, but rather like Cordy (now available for free on iOS, people!), Roboto still catches the eye through its class and high-gloss execution.

Key to its effervescent charm is the quality level design combined with simple yet flexible controls, and a smooth learning curve to ensure players develop a deft mastery of the twitchy hover-jump mechanics. It also helps if you're a decent shot, too, with increasingly irksome sentries to neutralise en route.

By the time Roboto starts facing off against chunky boss monsters, this simple, unpretentious yomp starts to show its teeth a little and adds challenge to its cute cartoon sheen. Roboto could have strayed from the well-worn formula a little more than it does, but as a quick platforming snack between meals, this does just fine.

7/10