Minotaur Rescue

But if you want to try out something truly bizarre and fun, there are minotaurs floating through space that could use your help.

Minter's love of all things old school has paid dividends, with a sweet shooter you need to experience, especially if you grew up during the golden age of Atari.

Minotaur Rescue is a solid little inertial shooter with plenty of TLC behind it. It can be quite chaotic, but the simple controls and offbeat elements in play make it fun and memorable, and the universal app support with expanded single-device multiplayer options is definitely a plus for iPad owners.

Even if Minotaur Rescue has its great moments, you shouldn't expect the same, disarming and hallucinogenic experience of the previous unforgettable Jeff Minter's games. Minotaur Rescue is a must-have for nostalgics of the Atari era: its control system is probably imperfect, but with some practice it proves to be entertaining and nicely chaotic. The new Llamasoft game is a true self-celebration that mirrors an old-time game developer and its golden era: Minter's followers will not be disappointed.

The game is basically a trippy combination of Asteroids and Space War! played on the screen of the iPhone or iPad and marks the first in a series of Llamasoft games that are part of the "Minotaur Project," an effort by the developer to release numerous titles featuring retro gameplay, progressing forward from the Atari VCS aesthetic to the VIC 20, Commodore 64, and beyond.

Depending on the response, Minter reckons this won't be the last the iOS market will be seeing from him. With the prospect of more enjoyably warped re-imaginings like this, maybe his best work is yet to come.

An attempt at modernising classic arcade gameplay, Minotaur Rescue fails due to awkward, imprecise controls.