

Best iPhone games: Irrupt

A miniature space odyssey which tests and teases in equal measure



Best iPhone games: Irrupt

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Irrupt is a simple game of twitch survival and canny timing. Your interaction with the game is limited to simply holding a finger to the screen, and sometimes, not touching your iOS device at all is the best strategy.

An endless stream of pixellated spacefolk float from left to right, one by one. All the while, and with two fingers aloft to the laws of physics, a succession of deadly spaceblocks fall from above with increasing speed. A tap of the finger stops each astronaut in this tracks.

The pauses have a limit, though. Hold down too long and after a set time, your cosmonaut jumpstarts into life again, bursting across the screen as if he had been storing up that sideways momentum. There is the occasional pickup floating down to help ease the rush of blocky death from above, but that's about it.

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Irrupt is very basic, but that doesn't mean it is devoid of strategy or nuance. Each and every meeting of finger and touch screen is life or death for your intrepid spacemen. Your astronauts establish a juddering, uneven rhythm, slipping underneath blocks just in time to glide outward stage right to presumed safety. That it's the exact same sprite each time doesn't really matter. Irrupt dares the player in each stretch of play - either pause, or keep calm and carry on.

Every successful passage across the screen is an astronaut rescued and a single point gained. There is no hand-holding, no score multipliers and there are no combos - my current high score is a measly 32. Developer Sets and Settings has created a simple test of reactions and nerve, but one which makes intoxicating miniature space epics out of idle moments. Irrupt is quick, accessible and irresistibly moreish.

Irrupt is 69p on the App Store. Download it here.