Games these days are more accessible than ever - particularly on touchscreen smartphones like the Nokia Lumia 800. However, some would argue that the essential spirit found in older games has been lost with all that hand-holding and signposting. Paradox Exit is the proof that that they do still make them like they used to.

Nokia Lumia 800 game: MiniSquadron review

That’s not to suggest that Paradox Exit is unduly difficult or frustrating (although it’s no walk in the park either). Rather, it possesses an old school sensibility and a refusal to pander to the impatient.

This is a slow-burn game that gradually sinks its claws into you, as you guide your spaceman around a series of vast levels, mining for resources and searching out the level exit.

It takes time to achieve both of these tasks. Valuable minerals are locked away in the thousands of blocks that populate each level, and it takes a dozen or more blasts of your little pop-gun to the good stuff. There are also stars littered around each stage, and you’ll need to gather a number of these before you can move on to the next level. They provide a healthy cash boost too.

Once you have enough dosh you can upgrade your abilities in the pause menu - from the power of his weapons (useful for fending off enemies as well as speeding up the mining process) to the efficiency and speed of your jetpack.

Ah yes, the jetpack. While the world you inhabit in Paradox Exit is hostile and tough to negotiate, the controls are extremely simple. In fact, you can do everything - from moving around to shooting and changing weapons - with one thumb. 

Touching and holding anywhere on the screen will bring up a virtual joystick that lets you scoot left and right or rocket off into the sky (though you have to stop to recharge from time to time). Tapping the screen, meanwhile, will cause your spaceman to shoot in that direction.

It’s a pleasantly simple system, although it takes longer than normal to master. This is because of the delicate nature of the game’s physics system, which involves a heavy reliance on gravity and inertia.

These are subverted at random intervals as the game chooses to throw an earthquake your way, or to invert gravity altogether. The first time the latter happens to you is a truly panic-inducing moment - especially if you’re surrounded by the many razors, enemies and other hazards that populate each level and take chunks out of your health.

What’s truly absorbing about Paradox Exit, though, is the sense of exploration it captures. You have to plot out your own course through each labyrinthine world, patiently scouring your map and manually setting a marker to head for. There’s rarely a straight-forward route to the exit, and it there was it probably wouldn’t be the best course to take.

Repetition does set in eventually, as your goals don’t really change throughout. But the sizeable upgrade system goes some way to easing such friction.

Paradox Exit isn’t a stunning-looking game, but it does have a lovely and deliberate sense of 8-bit charm. It’s like your favourite Spectrum, Commodore 64 or Atari 2600 game has been resurrected and sharpened up. The music, too, is a suitably spacey yet low-key electronica number. We like.

Here’s a game, then, that won’t be for every Nokia Lumia 800 owner. If you’ve only really gotten into games through the likes of Angry Birds and demand a similar level of instant gratification from all of your mobile games, then you might not appreciate what’s on offer here. If you’re hankering for an old school challenge, something with a little more openness or just something different, we can’t recommend this free gem highly enough.