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To be completely honest with you, the only reason we selected Barry Woods to start this new feature is because of the name. With that said, we have absolutely no idea who or what Barry Woods is…
In the context of video games, though, he appears to be a rather rotund man who enjoys throwing sticks at other sticks. Think Angry Birds except with our man Barry, and you can’t go far wrong.
In reality, developer X-Com has borrowed the lawn game ‘Kubb’ (no, we’ve never heard of it either…) to use as its foundations. In its most basic, and seemingly complex, form, you try and knock down ‘kegels’ by hurling other ‘kegels’ at them by choosing the angle and power of each throw. While this all sounds rather straight-forward, there’s a slight twist in that to finish off each round, you have to aim for and hit the ‘king’.
Essentially a bigger version of every other item you’ve been trying to upend, Barry Woods takes an odd turn as you don’t actually have to floor the smaller objects before moving on to the biggest of the bunch. In fact, if you just choose to flatten it from the off you can still progress to the next level.
It makes absolutely no sense as half the challenge, you’d imagine, is in avoiding the king until the end. Given how it stands, you can just lob the kegel anywhere you want. Yes, your score won’t be as high, but you’ll still progress regardless. With no element of failure present, you may as well chuck things around to your heart’s content.
With that said, it’s still oddly morish, and despite every level looking almost exactly the same as the last, it does have a few gimmicks that kick your brain cells into gear – it’s inoffensive if not a little dry.
It won’t change your life, but it may warm your cockles. Whatever that means…
Version tested: iOS on an iPhone 5. Played for 2 hours.