Mobile Games Roundup

Is it that time already? Apparently so. And it's another improbably decent line-up of games determined to suck up all the time that you definitely don't have.

It's definitely a good sign that two of this week's roster gobbled up about 12 hours of my time between them. It could have been even more, but then you wouldn't have a roundup this week, and we couldn't have that, could we?

As a personal plea to all the mobile game developers out there, I'd be extremely grateful if you could just stop releasing games for a couple of weeks. Just a couple. The 'to-play' list is getting ridiculous, and it's not fair on all those great games I'm not telling you about.

Mr Karoshi

• iPhone/iPad - £0.59.

Mr Karoshi has no princess to save, no dragon to slay; just a hollow, repetitive life as an anonymous salaryman who has a wife he doesn't love and a soul-destroying boss he's powerless to fight. It's time to turn the platform game on its head and put salaryman out of his misery!

But the respite of grisly death doesn't come easy in YoYo Games' latest 2D platformer. You have to plan his demise with military precision and careful timing if you're to make the pain end.

Each of the game's 50 levels offers one or more ways to top yourself, and it's up to you to seek them out if you want to move on to the next 'test'. Some offer a simple spike pit for you to throw yourself into, while others require more elaborate chain reactions and the unwitting co-operation of Karoshi's simpering wife and growling boss.

What starts off as a fairly tittersome piece of social commentary quickly morphs into an occasionally brain-breaking trial and error test, where nothing is ever as straightforward as it initially appears. With traps often requiring precision timing and a fair degree of forward planning, it's unlikely you'll have ever celebrated death with quite so much gusto.

Lost the will to fight The Man? Then let black humour and pixellated decapitations brighten up your Monday lunchtime.

8/10