PLATFORM: PC | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Time for a bit of daft nonsense that you’ve probably already got a pretty good idea of just from reading the name of the game. In Burglin’ Gnomes, you and a bunch of pals step into the tiny shoes of a herd of diminutive garden gnomes and do your utmost to break into houses, annoy/avoid the homeowner and steal as many of their belongings as possible within a 15-minute time limit. There’s no plot or any real reason to be doing what you’re doing, that’s apparently just how gnomes roll these days.

Starting from your base in the sky, which you can eventually upgrade using materials gained from the things that you manage steal, you and your pals float down to your target location and begin your assault from the garden. You’ll need to find a way in, then explore each room before grabbing hold of anything that isn’t nailed down and shoving it out of the front door or out of a window. The elderly homeowner will understandably be rather miffed if he spots you though. He’s deceptively spritely in his old age, and will chase you down and throw you into all sorts of hiding spots from where you’ll then need to be rescued by your teammates. If they take too long to save you, you’ll lose a life, and each death is permanent after the team’s three lives are spent. The ultimate goal is to work your way through each level and continue stealing things to continue upgrade your base, but that game over screen means that your progress is wiped and your next run starts from scratch.

Getting doors open and moving large items can be tricky to deal with in a solo game, but dealing with hazards and obstacles is much more fun with a few additional players, especially if you can put a full team of six together. There are currently only a handful of maps to play through, but tasks and item locations change each time so your objectives are usually fairly unique even if your surroundings become familiar over time. The difficulty ramps up significantly after your first few raids and can become a bit frustrating, but that’s part of the charm in these silly multiplayer games. For less than a tenner there’s certainly enough fun and entertainment for you and a bunch of pals to get a few ridiculous evenings’ worth of enjoyment from!