Hungry Cats review

We know what you're thinking: Hungry Cats, Angry Birds. And you're quite right. There's no avoiding the fact that this is another Angry Birds clone, and employs a similar anthropomorphic motif to add a touch of light-hearted humour to the destructive gameplay.

To be fair, Angry Birds isn't the game that invented this sub-genre, it's just the most popular example of this increasingly prolific style of gaming, so there's plenty of room yet for new takes on the old premise.

This time it's the birds that are the enemy, and have barricaded themselves inside teetering, unstable edifices that you're charged with felling. Your missiles are the hungry cats, who are fed up with the birds nicking all their cat food, apparently. Also, a kitten has been kidnapped, or something. Back story motivation isn't a strong point, admittedly, but the action more than makes up for the reasons behind the cats' and birds' ongoing war.

Hungry Cats is apparently optimised for all manner of handsets, from capacitive touchscreens to stylus-operated devices and good old fashioned keypads, and this turns out to be an unspoken hero of the Cats' struggle. Rather than hammering the square peg of an iPhone game into the round hole of a J2ME handset, Hungry Cats was designed to work with all manner of controls in mind, and that small aspect is very noticeable in play.

Your five different cats are lined up, ready to strike a well-aimed blow against the birds' strongholds by way of a catapult (insert your own "cat-apult" pun here). Setting the aim and power is a simple matter, determined by how far you pull the catapult back and the angle of trajectory you launch the feline missile at. Very simple, but developing your aim is an intricate skill.

Hungry Cats is built on an impressive physics engine, which is another significant part of its quality. The cats react very believably, with weight, aim and inertia all affecting your shots and providing a reaction that verges on real. The right size cat smashing against a critical weak spot in a structure can bring the whole thing down, but pounding cats (Ed: good job you said cats and not another feline term) into a solid wall, time after time, will get you nowhere.

There are 40 or so levels to work your way through, making for a decent length of game time, and the settings change considerably as you chase the birds out of the city, into the desert and through the forest. Achievements are unlocked as you progress, adding a bit of extra incentive to topple the bird houses as efficiently and skilfully as possible.

Chances are you've already seen this game in a different artillery bombardment incarnation, but Hungry Cats is a high quality rendition of the popular gaming format. If you fancy another shot at Angry Birds, but have cleared the majority of its levels, Hungry Cats comes highly recommended as a variant alternative.