Amazing Alex

Rovio, iOS (also Android) ****

With a hard act like the hugely successful Angry Birds to follow, Rovio needed something good to entice mobile gaming fans. Amazing Alex might just be that game. Based on a previously available iOS game called Casey’s Contraptions, Amazing Alex is physics-based, but there’s not a single pig or disgruntled bird in sight. Instead, you have Alex, a whizzkid with a knack for turning everything into a puzzle. To clear each level, you need to complete some objectives, whether it’s releasing a balloon, getting balls into a specified basket or knocking over a menacing cardboard robot.

To do that, you’ll have a collection of aids, including shelves, scissors and automated boxing gloves. Your challenge is to arrange the appropriate items in the correct places to achieve the necessary end goal. And if you can pick up the stars dotted around the level along the way, all the better. As you complete levels, you’ll unlock new ones. Should you get really stuck, you can ask for a bit of help, with video solutions available. It’s far more interesting to try to work it out yourself, though.