While on my travels around the store last night I came across a fun little title called EVAC. Available for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, EVAC is a psychedelic puzzler I literally fell in love with from the word go.

Mirroring the general game mechanic of the classic Pac-Man, EVAC sees you take the role of a pink square on his travels around a colour-filled maze of obstacles and impending doom. The maze is ran by the powerful ‘Shadow Box’, an entity you never really see throughout the game, but never the less, remains to have complete control over the maze you’ve found yourself in.

The aim of the game is to collect all the tiny coloured squares in the maze, all the while avoiding the the Shadow Box’s minions, the red squares. Red squares are triggered by you rolling over a floor trigger, or simply triggered by the Shadow Box himself – just because he feels like it. The game works on a three strikes and you’re out policy. Basically, if you encounter a red square more than three times you start the level all over again.

But the game is much more than the clean cut version I’m describing to you here. Along the way you’ll pick up ‘special powers’, for example the ability to turn into a ghost allows you to bypass red squares and force-fields to get to where you want to go more quickly. Other examples include the ability to shock and ‘stun’ red squares, allowing you to make your escape. Progressing through the levels, you’ll also come across holes in the maze walls. These are called ‘hide holes’ and allow you to avoid being captured by Shadow Box’s minions if in a tight situation. Once his minions leave you’re free to continue on your journey for victory.

Once you have successfully managed to collect all the tiny coloured squares situated in a particular level, the level-end gate will glow bright. Simply make your way to the gate and you’ll be whisked off to the next level!

Overall, both the retro art-style and accompanying music within the game made for a very enjoyable and slightly addictive experience. While the control system can be a little hard to grasp at first, all being said, it did seem to fit in with the title quite well, and personally I can’t see how the controls could be improved for such a game. My only gripe would be that it is a little too short in parts, but I’m sure updates are on the way to extend play.

With 24 different and challenging levels and online leaderboards to compete with friends, for the sake of 59p this will definitely kill an hour or two.