When you first pick up Infinity Danger, you might find yourself wondering where the rest of the game went. Imagine a bullet-hell shooter in which all the levels have been stripped away. So, instead of fighting waves of enemies to get to an end boss, you engage in one timed boss battle after another.

Now imagine you're fighting same boss every time, chipping away at layer upon layer of modular evolution to reveal the heart of the ship, and blast it smithereens once more.

After your first battle, during which you attempt to gel with the slightly gluey twin-stick controls, you'll probably be left feeling somewhat unsatisfied. However, take a few runs at Infinity Danger's ever-changing enemy, and you'll see where the challenge - and excitement - of the game lies.

You see, the boss, which bolts new cannons, beam weapons, and other defences to its adaptive core after every defeat, reacts directly to your attack strategy.

You might decide to hang back and eliminate every gun turret on the enemy ship so you can attack the core unchallenged. However, recognising your tactics, the boss may reappear with a ridiculous number of weapons, making it night-on impossible to eliminate them all before the timer hits zero.

Equally, if you choose to ignore the weapons and go straight for the core, the game might pack the heart of the ship within a cluster of protective pods for the next round.

This reactive gameplay forces you to constantly switch up your style of attack in the hope confusing the A.I. and opening up vulnerabilities. Even when using this tactic, the game is still tough - navigating triangulated laser beams while avoiding plasma balls, artillery fire, and the rotating arms of your foe is no mean feat. The clock is also against you, with every death deducting valuable seconds from your timer.

If you can work past the twitchy aiming system, low-res Google Map-style backgrounds and superficially limited gameplay, you'll discover a fairly compulsive blaster which is a lot smarter than you might initially think. We would have liked our own ship to evolve as the game progressed, and a more refined control scheme, but shooter fans who give Infinity Danger a chance might be pleasantly surprised.