A whack or smack is all that's required to solve your problems in the new PlayStation Portable game Hammerin' Hero.
Gamers have the mission of helping carpenter Gen save the town from the evil schemes of the Kuromoku Corporation, which seems to operate rather like the yakuza (Japanese mafia), forcing small businesses to sell so it can take over.
An old-school, 'side-scrolling' game, Hammerin' Hero takes players back to the early days of eight-bit and 16-bit gaming - remember the old-school games Contra and Final Fight?
Carpenter Gen has two main types of attack - weak and strong. The weak attack hurls items back in the direction they came, while the strong attack - although somewhat slower - sends things hurtling into the distance, with fun results.
Gen also has a special mode of attack that can be used three times in each stage of the game, though skilled gamers will likely make it through each level without having to use it.
Our carpenter has to fight his way through 12 levels - each full of cartoon-character bad guys - in locations that include city streets, an amusement park, a TV studio and a baseball stadium.
