I’m pretty sure that most Flash-games fans would have played the seminal “Whack-the-Pingu” game, ok, I shouldn’t have gone as far as labeling as seminal, it was a game that involved smacking a penguin with a bat to see how far it flew. No worries, no penguins were harmed in the game, the little fella always came back for seconds…and thirds…etc. But one thing is for sure, without “Whack-the-Pingu”, we wouldn’t have excellent time wasters such as this new minted game for the iPhone, Berzerk Ball.

Based on a popular Flash game in its own right, Berzerk Ball asks the simple question of how far can a geek fly when he’s smacked with a variety of implements such as a baseball bat, canoe paddle and other stuff. The game’s controls are really simple, tap twice at the start to set the angle and power and once the geek is flying through the air, control him mid air for longer range. Sometimes, you get to hit the geek again as he’s just about to land on the ground.

The level, a.k.a Berzerk Land, seems to be populated randomly with stuff and the game’s 2D graphics engine seems to handle this with aplomb with the occasional slowdown. There are birds, robots and even moving blobs of blue slime in which if hit by the Geek will cause him to fly further.

Depending on how far the geek flew, players are awarded cash and XP points. Cash is used to purchase items and weapons whereas XP points are used to upgrade the player character. Speaking of player characters, there are a host of them to choose from, some of which are unlocked once you have hit a certain distance with a particular character. The game features Game Center connectivity and as you can guess already, this game is packed with Achievements.

The geek himself can be a sarcastic bastard, often with comments appearing before and after he gets smacked. One cool touch from the developers is that players can leave their own “Geek” comments and get a chance to have them published in the game in the next update.

I enjoyed beating the heck out the geek and his penchant for seconds is certainly admirable. And like I’ve said, this game is an excellent time waster. Berzerk Ball is now available on the App Store for USD 0.99. Check it out over here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id406919685?mt=8. 4/5 STARS. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.