Many years ago, I caught wind of a curious game with a title appropriate for a prototype — App Wars 01. My initial thought was it was a virus. It turns out the game is one of a kind, even by today’s standards of mobile gaming. It’s unfortunate the game was taken off soon after.

Designed by a Japanese studio, the game keeps the challenge simple: with three attack buttons — punch, kick, and guard — you must execute an endless array of attack prompts in a sequence. Your score is calculated based on what mode you selected, so it can range from the longest combo you set, to the number of punching bags you put down in the time left. You can only take two hits in each game; you get hit both times, you lose. You can then use the points you earned to either unlock in-game temporary items to give you a bit of a boost, or unlock gallery content in the Collection menu. Like most Japanese games, App Wars 01 is clearly inspired by old-school arcade games with time-attack modes and reaction-based gameplay.

If you successfully maintain a combo for a long period, you trigger a limited attack bonus that turns the attack buttons into a yellow special attack (shown as “[!]”). Then you can spam-press them, build up your combo, and achieve your goal a lot faster.

Speaking of time-attack modes, the game offers three distinct modes.

The first is “Time Attack”. In it, you finish beating up all of the enemies as soon as you can, to set the quickest record.

The second is “Time Limit”. This one has you beat up as many thugs as you can before time itself runs out.

The third is “Rush”, and it is perhaps the only “easiest” mode. It’s like Time Attack, but with the attack bonus I mentioned above permanently on. So there’s no penalty for pressing the “wrong” button. It’s perhaps the only mode with which you can farm points, albeit sluggishly.

The game has a middling sense of replayability; if you want a stronger challenge, you can unlock the “Hard” level for 300 points.

The stylish presentation is what caught my eye the most, with the gameplay sprites drawn in pixel art, and the rest of the interface designed with high contrast colours. The white noise background, however, doesn’t make for an eye-friendly experience.

Given the game’s age and potential lack of interest, it was eventually taken off the shelves, delisted in today’s terms. Perhaps, the game could make a return one day, with a different, more appropriate title.

For now though, you can access it through “Libraries and Devices” (in your Google Play account, if you played the game in the past), or through APKPure.

VERDICT: A fun three-button brawler that pushes your reaction skills to the limit. I rate it 8.5 out of 10.