MeowMix is a brand new free game for the iPhone, iPad and iPod. It borrows from perennial favourites like Tetris and match-3 games such as Bejeweled, throws in everyone's favourite feline, resulting in a novel game which is both fun and cute.

As per Tetris, the player controls falling shapes - which in this case are colourful cats hanging onto each other - dropping them into position. Unlike Tetris however the cats won't leave gaps; as they fall into position they break formation to occupy any spaces. Additionally, the Tetroid shapes may be made up of cats of different colours.

This is where the challenge comes in, and the match three component. Your goal isn't to make rows of cats per se, but to maximise how many cats of the same colour are touching. Provided you have at least three you can touch them to score and make them disappear (with cats above them now falling down to take their place) but the big points come from making the largest chains you can - essentially, the score is the number of cats multipled by itself, so a chain of three cats gives you nine points while a chain of five cats scores 25.

The cats themselves will entertain young and old alike. As you touch and poke and interact with them they will meow, sharpen claws, yawn and generally engage in amusing behaviours.

As you play levels you obtain stars based on your performance and a certain number of stars are required to advance levels.

There is quite a bit of strategy going on here; you need to think ahead how you can build up long chains of same-coloured cats, while risking having a moggy invasion build up to the top of the screen, at which point it is game over!

MeowMix has been released globally on the 29th October and is available from the Apple App Store. You can also watch gameplay on YouTube. The game is free of charge.

MeowMix is cute and fun for the casual player, with strategic elements for the more advanced gamer.