THE STORY

Here’s a shocking stat for you: even though some 26 different sports featured at the London 2012 Olympics, the medieval sports of jousting, hitting people with spikey clubs and dousing others in flaming pitch were not represented at all. So to redress this awful oversight, we turn now to possibly the best jousting app on all of Android: Shake Spears!

THE EXPERIENCE

There’s an old saying which runs: “violence solves nothing”, but sometimes it’s an undeniable fact that the only way to thrash out differences is with, well, a thrashing. Say someone steals your princess, insults your horse or, worse still, questions your valour? The only thing you can reasonably do is saddle up and lance an apology out of them. Which is pretty much the premise here – move from kingdom to kingdom picking a scrap with everyone you encounter and try not to end up eating dirt too often.

Starting out with basic lance and shield, early opponents respond well to considered tactics in the positioning of these two items when you charge inexorably at them, using your shield to block their blow and raising or dropping the tip of your knight-stick to inflict the most damage. And repeat. As you rise up the rankings upgrades (and magical upgrades) become available to give you the edge… and you’ll need them.

With 20 cities to explore, four bosses to over-poke, there’s plenty here for pixel-based point-making pugilists to play with. But…

THE BOTTOM LINE

Whilst graphics are detailed, gameplay extends little beyond anything basic, which may leave serious gamers a little cold and, with no second chances, a loss sends you straight back to square one, which can get tedious. Overall, good, clean fighty freemium fun, but clearly just too limited and repetitive for my ADHD-tinged tastes.

Additional information

Current version: 1.15
Requires Android 2.2 and up

Download the Shake Spears! App from Google Play

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