App of the Week

This Could Hurt9 cert, Chillingo, iPad (also iPhone, iPod Touch)

This Could Hurt uses the limited resources of an app game in a clever way. The graphics and set-up are elaborate for a game of its kind, but the controls are the model of simplicity. Your character, wearing a Tin Tin- style quiff, runs through a series of elaborate, cartoonish obstacle courses. These are the sort of perils that have plagued animated coyotes and Italian plumbers for decades, including swinging motorised blades, automated mallets and even jumping piranha. He runs a set route for each level, and your sole control (apart from using the odd power-up) is to either stop him in his tracks or let him run. The timing of your pauses can make the difference between being burned by an automated flamethrower or sauntering past unscathed. Gently addictive, as all app games should be, This Could Hurt creeps up on you and creates the coveted “one more go” quality every game aspires to. This could hurt your productivity!