A multiplayer online battle arena with weaponised hovercrafts? Sure, I thought, scrolling through the App Store’s new releases not long ago on my iPhone, looking for Apple TV-compatible releases, I’ll give that a go.

I wasn’t expecting much – eye candy it ain’t. But soon enough, evening became night, which eventually became late, and I realised I was having a lot of fun.

In the few hours I’ve spent in-game, matchmaking has been pleasingly fast, with time between matches minimal. This is a good thing, because this latest title in studio High Score Hero’s Hovercraft series of games is very more-ish, if you can give yourself over to the pure, simple fun the game offers.

Random 3 vs 3 matches are set up, combatants are placed on one of the game’s ’80s-era Tron-style maps, and it’s on for young and old, blue versus red.

The first team to collect 10 power cores, or the team with the most when the clock runs out, wins. If gunned down, you’ll drop your collected power cores which can then be scooped up by another player, making for some frantic scrambling and see-saw matches, with victory never certain despite a healthy lead.

Matches will earn you loot in the form of currency, which can then be used to upgrade hovercrafts offensively and defensively, open crates, and claim rewards on levelling up.

Apart from the basic gameplay, players can go a lot deeper into Hovercraft: Battle Arena if they choose, and piece together a craft block by painstaking block, limited only by their imaginations. So far I’ve stuck with the stock options, concentrating on earning loot to upgrade the off-the-shelf models, but the craft building mechanics seem user-friendly enough at first glance.

Health, speed boost refills, and weapon pickups can be found throughout each map, and the floaty, momentum-based movement feels ideal for navigating the arenas, with judicious use of speed boosts essential to survival.

Hovercraft: Battle Arena is controller-compatible, and it’s a brave player who ventures into the arena with nothing but a Siri Remote in hand.

ATVG has been having fun in High Score Hero’s arena, and hopefully there will be enough interest in this fun title to warrant the studio’s ongoing support for the game on the Apple TV platform. It definitely deserves a chance.

Roll the trailer:

If you’re new to The Apple TV Gaming Blog (ATVG), or just new to Apple TV gaming in general, or both, then the best place to get acquainted is our Best Apple TV Games Of 2017 article. You’ll find a great collection of games to play, and a bunch of useful links to our previous site content. Enjoy.