12 cert, Chillingo, iPad (also iPod, iPod Touch) ***

The press material for The Act calls it an “interactive comedy”, and it’s a fair description.

There are shades of The Artist, Jerry Lewis, and a dash of the game Dragon’s Lair in this elegantly animated app game. You play Edgar, a humble window cleaner who finds himself in increasingly slapstick adventures, among them trying to hold down a job, saving his brother from accidental brain surgery. and winning the heart (and other parts) of a pneumatic nurse.

The animation is dazzling, mimicking the hand-drawn escapades of classic Warner Brothers and Hanna Barbara cartoons, and the music is lively and snazzy. Gameplay is secondary, however, as you guide your character left or right to progress. (Lean left to frown or right to laugh in one scene, for example.) It could be a little longer, but overall The Act is an innovative title with engaging characters and a satisfying joke-to-laugh ratio. A successful experiment, so.