Occasionally, despite all evidence in front of me that says I shouldn't like something, I find myself beating my head against a brick wall trying to find the one thing that makes all of the time spent playing the game worthwhile. Pixel Fighters by BitWit Solutions is, potentially, a fantastic tactical title and manages to merge JRPG-like combat and tropes with more traditional tactical action-point based mechanics. It's an odd fit, but one that really does work, making it all the more disappointing when your game crashes out for the umpteenth time before you manage to kill the final boss.

Pixel Fighters strips back the grinding, the waffling storyline, and the unnecessary quest for powerful items from a traditional JRPG and replaces it all with a linear never-ending brawl. For some this may sound boring, but hold on to your hats because instead of mindlessly spamming the attack button you'll need to combine your abilities as a 3-man team to overcome each challenge put before you.

Players can choose a group from a handful of common 'clases', ranging from basic warrior, hunter, priest, and mage to the more exotic shaman, paladin, and warlock. Everything you do in the game is dictated by 'AP' (action points), with players earning 3 AP per round, however careful use and tactical planning may require you to 'save' up to 3 AP, allowing you to potentially have 6 AP at the beginning of your next round. This unlocks access to high-level skills, causing anything from huge amounts of burst damage to setting your team up for a knock-out blow against the team you're facing.

If you get tired of the singleplayer adventure mode you can test your skills online or on local networks, taking your tactical knowledge to the next level.

All of this alone would be fantastic if not for two glaring problems that either slow down progression or worse-still, stop it altogether. While the game's 'retro' feel is charming, the chunky interface doesn't mesh well and despite how much menus overlap the screen, each option is miniscule and provides little info about its effect until you hover over it with your finger. Updates to the interface feel incredibly slow, leaving the player mashing the screen waiting for the ability to 'Save AP' or simply opening a basic menu after selecting a character. However this is nothing compared to the relatively frequent crashes experienced on an iPhone 4S, resulting in the need to restart an entire fight from the last checkpoint (thankfully the game saves after every battle).

Buried underneath the bugs and clunky controls is a game worthy of praise, but until these things are sorted out it's hard to recommend Pixel Fighters at this time. If these things don't concern you so much, then by all means, grab this great title and watch your afternoon melt away.