Lunar Patrol

An extra life, and coolant that stops the gun jamming for twenty seconds. Both float above the decks and the open ground — high enough that you have to jump for them.

The moon's night side. One buggy, three wheels, and a horizon full of things that want you stopped.

Craters break open in front of you, deep enough to swallow the buggy whole. Tanks dig in and shell you from range. Striders come over the ridge on three legs, tall enough that a low shot passes clean underneath. Saucers strafe overhead. Trains of linked fliers snake across the sky in one long chain. And every so often the sky itself comes down: a meteor, burning all the way in, digging a fresh crater in the ground up ahead.

Tilt the phone to drive: forward speeds you up, back slows you down, and level holds whatever you have got. You set the pace and the phone stays flat in your hands. Jump and drop stay under your thumb, and there are two triggers in the other hand — a laser that fires flat ahead and a mortar that lobs straight up. They share one heat sink. (Prefer keys? Turn tilt off and the pad grows a brake and a throttle.) Lean on either and the gun jams, and a jammed gun just coughs at you until it cools. Pick your shots.

TAKE THE HIGH ROAD Hovering decks hang over the worst of the ground, and they stack: land on one and the pit underneath stops mattering, jump again and there is another lane above it with its own holes and its own emplaced guns, and deep runs stack a third. There is usually a fuel cell up there worth the detour. You can also just jump the hole. That choice, made at speed, is the game.

Except over a rift. A rift is too wide to jump and it kills your thrusters as you cross it — the deck slung over it is the only way to the other side, and you have to be on it before the ground runs out.

LEARN IT IN FIVE SECONDS Two thumbs. Left side speeds you up and slows you down, right side jumps and shoots. No tutorial, no menus between you and the game.

READ IT AT A GLANCE Everything is drawn in the same near-black and lit only at the edges, and the edge colour tells you what a thing is. Red hunts you. Magenta is the elite hardware — the striders and the chained fliers. Green is something you can stand on. Pale blue is terrain — jump it. Cyan is you. You will never wonder what a thing on screen is for.

BUILT TO BE REPLAYED Levels get longer and meaner, and the sky changes colour as you cross into new regions. Checkpoints keep you honest without sending you back to the start. Game Center leaderboards and achievements if you want to know where you stand.

PLAYS ANYWHERE No account, no ads, no internet needed. Works on iPhone and iPad, in landscape, with everything running on your device.

FREE TO PLAY, HONESTLY Two minutes a day free, in full — no locked levels, no energy meters. After that your buggy is stuck at double speed until tomorrow, which is playable but punishing. One in-app purchase removes the limit permanently. That's the only purchase in the app, and there are no subscriptions.