The premise is simple – take out your stress on your ‘buddy’ by inflicting damage (for the most part) using the many different weapons and items available to you from the very broad selection.

So with this in mind, once the game is loaded the fun begins. Your ‘buddy’ is initially housed in a card board box which can be upgraded as you progress through the game. But first things first, you can customise the face of the buddy, by using the face selection tool which accesses your photos. This means you can punish any one of your friends or even yourself! Now all you need to do is choose your weapon/object of desire. This is achieved by selecting the drop-down menu and scrolling through the notebook, once highlighted, you simply click on the room, drag, tap or target the buddy and watch him react.

I’m particularly fond of combining land mines with bowling bowls. With a few well paced mines (and I mean about 10) on each wall, floor and ceiling, you can then chuck a few balls into the room and watch your ‘buddy’ dance and bounce around like a pinball as they explode around him while he pleads for help. My other favourite is using the over sized toaster and, yep you guessed it, toasting your ‘buddy’ and then beating him around the head with the toaster.

Some of the objects and content in only unlocked with IAPs but you can still manage to play and enjoy the game without making a (real) purchase. Otherwise the in-game currency is dollars, and these are earned by punishing and entertaining your ‘buddy’, which then allows you to buy more items and have even more fun!

The detail and style of the user interface is executed to a high standard, with great looking icons and achievement badges. The main graphics look good and the sound effects work but the explosions and effects from the objects get a bit samey at times.

It might be nice to see some of the environment take on the damage but I understand this might make things harder to see. Another nice feature would be to record 10 secs of your favourite (destructive) combo and be able to share it with other users.

By now, I’m sure you will realise that Kick the Buddy doesn’t take it’s self seriously, it’s very much about humour and having fun, which is a great thing. Kick the Buddy is a pleasant casual game, which is amusing at times and for 69p I think it’s worth it to put a smile on your face.

Kick the Buddy, 1.10
Developer: Dmitriy Glebenok. (9+)
Price: 69p