Pigeon Wings

ONLY BIRD BRAINS WON’T BUY THIS $2.99 | pigeonwingsgame.com

ANOTHER RICH, EVIL dude has decided to destroy East Megalopolis, and only Pigeon can stop him. Yes, in this deranged, high-speed racer, a bird you thought spent its life making a mess of city squares is the hero.

Across 50 levels, you swoop, dive and race other pigeons. The prize in every tenth level is taking on flying dreadnoughts aiming to turn you into pigeon pie. These sections are brief and intense, and a nice diversion from the long and intense racing bits.

Visually, it’s quite simple, but supersmooth as the pigeons absolutely belt along, only occasionally being obliterated by flying mines. Also, humour is laced throughout, notably when the villain taunts the pigeon, who doesn’t respond – due to the fact that it’s a pigeon.

But the slickest bit is arguably the controls. One button accelerates, the other boosts or shoots weapons, depending on whether you’re battling a boss; your altitude is controlled by tilting your device forward and back. This feels superb, enabling you to quickly react to a wall that’s about to slam into your beak, and you’ll miss this control when returning to games with more traditional setups. Not that you’ll do so until you’ve cracked the 50th level of this high-octane racer.