Turbo duck is essentially a platform game without the platforms. Your task is to guide a rubber duck around a pool and collect things while avoiding other things. Simple enough.

While the game boasts some cool water effects when you touch the screen, that’s about all it boasts on the good side. Well, the game itself is a good idea but the gameplay and execution are lost in translation.

In Turbo Duck you tilt your iPhone to guide your rubber duck around a pool collecting specific items. When you collect all the items you move on to the next level. The major problem is when you play through 20 or so levels (like I did) then leave and come back. You must start all over again as there is no save feature and no progress tracker. You can’t even choose the level you would like to play. For a game that is expected to be played in short periods (as most mobile and iPhone titles are) this is an unconscionable omission.

The gameplay in Turbo Duck is interesting and while not unique does suit the iPhone well. But the controls are unpredictable. At times I could hold the iPhone completely vertical and the game would believe I was trying to make the duck go right. I could hold it completely horizontal and the duck would move in a downward course.

The graphics and the sounds are just below par with many pay titles on the iPhone at present and overall Turbo Duck is just an unfinished demo of what a game should be. There are many pieces of a full game missing like progress saving, sensitivity settings and some way to calibrate the interface. You can turn the sound and musiv off and on, but really I could do that with the switch on the side of the iPhone.

Strawdog Studios has a good idea here and while the game is incomplete it was somewhat entertaining. I did love watching the rubber duck turbo his way across the pool. But the pools are small, the controls are hit or miss and the graphics and sound are nothing spectacular. I believe that if they make some major updates to the title it might be worth purchasing. Right now I’d suggest you get a cake pan, a rubber duck and some bread crumbs and play the game in your kitchen as it would cost less and be just about as entertaining.