Riverman Media has delivered two excellent titles in a row with Pizza vs. Skeletons [$4.99] and The Executive [$0.99], and they deliver again with MUL.MASH.TAB.BA.GAL.GAL [$2.99]. Somehow, they've taken Pong, and turned it into a chaotic action game where you're trying to stay alive while enemies try to ascend the screen, and you're there trying to manage multiple balls, paddles with special abilities, and all manner of powerups. It's a chaotic game, and a remarkably engrossing one.

You've played Pong or a game like it before, so you know how bouncing the ball between two paddles works. MUL.MASH flips things on its head by being a game about bouncing a ball between two paddles facing each other horizontally, and then having enemies ascend from bottom to top. It's the challenge at the heart of the game, because you constantly have to play angles to hit enemies. Bouncing the ball off the top and bottom can help you hit multiple enemies in one go, particularly handy for the boss fights. Yes, there are boss fights, as you constantly ward off enemies through multiple levels, progressing deeper and deeper into the game. As you play ? and eventually fail ? you start to unlock paddles with various effects, such as shots that fire after so many hits, paddles that heal you every so many shots, or even just different-sized ones. You do have a say in how you approach the challenges of this game. MUL.MASH is a game where you have to start over from 1-1 each time you play it, with level...