Catch that imp!
For a fast-paced and exciting little single- or two-player experience, then the strangely named ImpArea is well worth checking out. It's a pretty original title, with little in the way of reference material to compare it to, but as with all the best ideas, it's simple in concept but surprisingly tricky to master in reality and is well enough executed to keep you playing on a wet Sunday afternoon. The idea is that a bunch of imps are transporting lost souls around the playing area and it's your responsibility to free as many of these souls as possible before they get taken off to whatever hellish place the imps have in mind for them. This is achieved in the less than obvious manner of dropping a massive glass on top of the imps as they scurry back and forth. Simply move the cursor around and then hit fire to release the glass, attempting to get as many under it as possible, and smile in evil glee as you catch the little devils' tails under the edge of the glass (which actually racks you up even more bonus points). The whole thing is payed out as a sort of race against time, with 100 seconds given to free as many souls as possible and everything gets very competitive if you're playing in two player mode, as you attempt to out do your friend. ImpArea is astonishingly simple stuff but is no less addictive for this fact and it has the same kind of appeal as high score chasers like Pacman and Space Invaders. The visuals are simple enough but it's the gameplay that is the star here and although there's little in the way of variety, it is surprisingly good fun catching imps.
