Zak is not having a good day, having accidentally jettisoned his cargo. In order to deal with this catastrophe, he must leave the ship and descend to the planet below, armed only with a bug swatter, for as he is soon to discover, his diminutive size means he is on par with earths insect population...

Flyhunter Origins, for the PS Vita is a side scrolling platformer. The game is played across five worlds; about twenty short levels. It’s not the most challenging or longest game around and your controls are limited to jump, swat, stun (when you get a gun) and occasionally fly.

The game is visually pleasing, and is bright, based mostly around primary colours. Environments consist of the usual garden flora and fauna, with lots of leaves to jump across as well as mushrooms and the occasion garden object to get past. Because of your diminutive size, even a flower pot may prove a challenging obstacle, but there are often ant tunnels which burrow beneath. If you are going to take the lower course your biggest challenge is going to be the spiders, but in truth unless you hesitate they are more of a visual threat than an actual obstacle to your progress.

The settings, which can be altered, are also somewhat limited. You can change the volume of the music and the sound effects as well as invert Y for the flying sequences. There is an extras section where you can view the flies you have recovered as well as any cinematics that you have unlocked. One nice point is that the game can support three separate players. It keeps the best run time through each section and a lot of the time beating this is going to be the main motivation to play.

Along the way you can collect biomass for the ship's engines; your current progress is displayed in the top right hand corner. Along your journey you will also come across rare bug eggs, which can be traded in on the black market for upgrades to your weapons and suit. The game is fairly generous with its stages and, should you die, you will be returned via the cloneomatic.

Because of the ease of play there is a general lack of challenge in the game, but then I’m looking at it from the perspective of an adult player. Younger players may just enjoy running around swatting bugs, finding secret costumes and enjoying the challenge of not falling off the dynamically mobile leafs.

The dodgy leafs notwithstanding the game's limitations and graphical appeal should suit a younger gamer. This also goes for its lack of overall violence, which is restricted to swatting bugs. Generally it lacks the depth and complexity to appeal to many adult gamers.

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Charles Packer