Mobile Games Roundup

Puzzle Quest 2

• Windows Phone 7 - £5.49
• Also available on iPhone and iPad (unified binary - £5.99), PC, XBLA and DS.

If there's a platform that Puzzle Quest hasn't come out on yet, you can bet that D3 Publishing and Namco Mobile will rectify the situation. And with Windows Phone 7 providing another suitable outlet for this curious match-three/RPG hybrid, who are we to deny it another day in the sun?

For those of you wondering what the fuss is about, the game consists of being ushered around an attractive isometric environment, accepting quests, and then engaging in tense turn-based gem battle. Every time you match three or more items, you can use those 'resources' to unleash attacks or spells, with the ultimate aim to defeat your foe by reducing their HP to zero.

As Christian noted in his 7/10 review back in the summer, this sequel is a safe bet for anyone who lost untold hours to the "emptily compulsive" 2007 original. It plays it pretty safe, with a few cosmetic changes to the formula, and a tweaked item system that adds a smattering of extra strategic depth.

The game would be an awful lot more enjoyable, though, if you didn't periodically run into overpowered road blocks, and come up against opponents that, essentially, look like they're cheating. Unlike Christian, I continually encountered opponents who ran up insanely powerful chains – often from the very first turn.

If you have the patience to work around such issues, Puzzle Quest 2 is a hugely effective formula, and dangerously compulsive. While we wait patiently for Gyromancer to finally hit the mobile scene, this will do just fine.

7/10

Rocket Bunnies

• Android - Free (requires Android OS 2.2 to run)

You can hardly blame them, but one day bunnies will rise up against their human oppressors. They will develop advanced rocket technology, and then spend the rest of their days rescuing their friends from intergalactic terror cells. Or at least that's what Defiant Developments reckons, and who are we to crush its beliefs?

In this ad-supported title, the idea is to hop from one planet to the next and scoop up all your bunny pals in the shortest possible time. Like an intergalactic DK: King Of Swing, you start off in orbit, and can propel yourself from one planet to the next by simply tapping on an adjacent world. Time it correctly and you get a handy speed boost, and gaining a three-star rating involves carefully plotting your route around the galaxy.

As you go through the universe saving your mates, you find yourself forced to dodge all manner of hazards en route, such as electrical traps, exploding planets, space junk and pursuing space spiders.

But somewhere along the way, the all-important fun-to-challenge ratio shifts alarmingly into the red. Suddenly it's Defcon 1, the colour drains from the scene, expletives are uttered, and the Android's being flung out of the window and kills a passing pedestrian. Is that what you wanted, Defiant Developments? Well, is it?

6/10