Also, I got a small bear. He’s a bit rubbish, but he does his best.

I have such a love/hate relationship with this thing. I very much enjoy watching the fights and, especially, seeing what new goodies I get for leveling up, but I loathe the need to recruit other players in order to get the most out of the game. Some people might see that as just a type of social gaming, I see a pyramid scheme designed to sell as many copies of the game as possible.

Sigh.

Later that evening my iPhone informed me that there was an update, to version 1.7. It adds a new arena and, um, some other stuff I don’t remember, but which didn’t sound especially interesting. By this point I was actually able to play, so I finally got to see my dog in action.

I actually won a few of my fights last night. The dog doesn’t do much damage, but it does add up – and he’s good at taking a hit or two for you.

It’s worth noting, too, that I’m only using one character, when I could have three, so I could actually be playing more if I felt like it. (The game lets you have nine in total, but only if you recruit people to unlock the extra slots. I’ve talked about how much I hate the policy of locking features unless you recruit other players before, but I’ll mention it again. I hate it. It’s rubbish.)

I’m actually quite excited about this game, even though the way it encourages you to spam codes around means it’s a big festering pile of crap. Why? Well, since I started playing the web version I’ve been wanting a dog. Or a wolf. Or a bear. An animal companion, anyway.

Last night I leveled up and – guess what? – got a dog. Hooray!

Unfortunately, I leveled up after my last fight of the day, so I’ve not had a chance to see my pooch in action yet. I think I’ll call him Dexter. All pets get called Dexter these days, it seems to be a new law.

Shame the action is me running away. Of course, I’m just running back to my side of the screen after attempting an attack, rather than running away from the fight. Although, given how many fights I’m losing, I’m beginning to wish there was a way to retreat from fights before they’re over. Maybe I need a master to give me bonuses, or something.

Much as I enjoy watching everything, this need to recruit and be recruited by other players to really compete leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. I’m not sorry I spent 59p on this game, but I’d have regretted £2.99 and I can’t in good conscience recommend the game to others. If you do buy it, make sure you know exactly what it is before taking the plunge.

1) The iPhone version locks a lot of its content unless you recruit pupils – i.e. persuade other people with the game to type in your code, rather than anyone else’s. As I wasn’t planning on spamming any forums begging for pupils, I knew that I’d never get the most out of the game.

2) It cost £2.99.

Yesterday, the price came down to 59p, so I took the plunge. (And in the unlikely event that anyone reading this does want to be my pupil, my code is CHEAAIFE.)

I have actually got one pupil already, as shown in the screenshot above.

Anyway, My Brute is barely a game – you create a character, watch them fight and get random bonuses when they level up. It limits you to a few fights a day, so you can only play it for a few minutes and it’s hardly even interactive, with your decision-making being limited to a choice of who to fight. Despite all that, though, I find seeing my little brute fight and get stronger to be, well, “interesting” is probably the best word. I’ve been playing it on the web for months, off and on, so I expect I’ll be fighting every day on the iPhone, too.

Metal Gear Solid Touch Lite – Very much enjoyed this. Drag your sights around the screen to shoot enemies, the catch being that when you’re moving the sights and shooting you can be shot, but when you’re still you go into cover. I’d very much like the full version, but £4.99 feels steep when it used to cost £3.49.

I Love Katamari Lite – Haven’t quite got used to the tilt controls. Not sure I ever could. I need to play it more, see if it ever becomes comfortable.

Eliss Lite – A game that wouldn’t work on any platform other than the iPhone, which makes it something of a novelty. It’s meant to be good, but the demo is too short and the instructions make no sense at all. I’m interested, but not rushing off to buy.

My Brute Lite – Very limited demo. I play the web version every day, so an iPhone version would seem like an immediate buy, but £2.99 just feels too expensive. £1.79 or less and I’m there… though I may well cave and buy it soon anyway.

Tangled Lite – Untangle stuff. Can’t get my head around it at all and only solve puzzles by fluke. For clever people, though, I can see this being decent.

Unblock Me Free – Great little puzzle game that works perfectly and requires actual thinking. Good stuff.

Skybound Lite – Last but far from least, this is a lovely little game that reminds me off a flash game from a year or two ago where you had to collect bells, or something. A ball falls down the screen, you draw clouds underneath it so it bounces back up, you see how high you can go. Great little demo. I’d buy the full version for 59p in an instant and will probably pay the current price (£1.19 I think) before too long.