Ticklefluff is an ‘infinite teaser’ app which invites players to tickle, stroke, poke, squeeze, blow, shake and hi-five Ticklefluff in time to an ever quickening dance beat...

Many moons ago, when I worked on a technology magazine in London, we were sent a toy called Bop-It Extreme. This odd shaped plastic allowed you to perform five very different actions. So when the voice said "twist it"; "flick it"; "spin it"; "pull it"; or "bop it" you had to engage with the corresponding part. The game got quicker and quicker, until you fluffed it and had to start all over again.

I took Bop-It home over the Christmas period and it became an instant hit with the family... In fact, we'd stay up into the small hours trying to beat each others score. I'd forgotten about Bop-It and how much fun it was until we were sent information on the Ticklefluff App.

Ticklefluff is pretty much Bop-It for mobile devices (although you can actually buy Bop-It for the iPad). You're introduced to Ticklefluff, a crudely drawn, cute (to some) creature, who looks like it's walked right of the page of a Japanese manga. All he/she wants is a bit of attention, so it will call out what it wants you to do and you have to perform the corresponding act (stroke; tickle; triple-finger press; blow; shake; poke; or high five). One false move and the game ends (displaying how many moves you correctly completed)

Other options include reaction cam, which when activated records the gamer as they frenetically play the game. The results can be shared on social media sites. You can also play multiplayer mode, where you play normally until Ticklefluff tell you to pass the game onto another player and they must carry on playing.

This is a great, addictive little App, but I did have a couple of issues. Firstly, it's very easy to accidentally tap the screen (registering a "poke") when you go to shake it. It's not that much of a problem, and hardly ever happens, but it's something you need to be aware of.

Secondly, and this may just be a problem that is down to my equipment, we received this game a few weeks before release. I played it, enjoyed it. However, a few days later and the game seemed to have stopped working correctly.

The problem was that the "blow" function seemed to work intermittently. Most of the time, though, it wasn't registering at all. I checked the settings to see if the microphone was enabled for the App (it was) and then I started to notice that the "stroke" function seemed to be hit and miss. This sort of glitch happens from time to time on Apps and usually the best remedy is to delete the App and then go back into your purchases and download it again... But for some reason (I'm assuming because it wasn't available to the general public at that time) the App wasn't there.

I was kindly sent another code by the PR company and once again the "blow" ability seemed to be okay... but a few days later and it was hit and miss as to whether it worked.

Now, as far as I know, I don't have a faulty microphone (I use Facetime, Siri and a dictation App quite a bit and have never encountered a problem). I was playing the game on an iPad Air, running the latest version of iOS... so I'm was at a loss as to what the issue was... This glitch, however, pretty much made the game unplayable.

I'm assuming that, it's a fault at my end, as the developers claim they've received no other complaints. And with that being the case, I'm reviewing the game on the basis that it works as advertised.

Ticklefluff is an addictive, fun game that, like Bop-It, works best if you have family and friends who also have it, so that you can compete with each other. It also saves your highest score and shows you where you rank today / this week / or all time with other gamers around the world.

8

Darren Rea