When surrounded by hordes of axe-wielding Orcs, giant Trolls and undead skeletons all thirsty for a piece of your flesh, what’s a girl to do? Display all her womanly assets to titillate and distract so she can get in a few unanswered hacks with her massive sword. After all, all’s fair in love and war. So Tehra, the half-blooded heroine of Tehra: Dark Warrior from StormBASIC, slips into her skimpiest G-string bikini and sets out into the dark world of Sistar.

Tehra’s eye catching visuals certainly pop off the screen in this smooth running hack-n-slash making it one of the better looking games on the Idevice. It’s also one of the hardest. Don’t expect to breeze through this game. After the first couple of levels, the number of monsters that spawn along with the scarcity of healing potions will cause frustration if you just walk in and start wailing away. This game needs a tutorial. You’ll have to learn through trial and error how to clear each level, what demons to target first and how to upgrade and use your magic. It took me several levels before I found out you can transform Tehra into her more powerful demonic self by tapping the life bar when it flashes.

StormBASIC says Tehra has a “dynamic” difficulty setting that progressively adjusts to your skill level each time you die. It took me at least five tries to get through the harder levels making my skill level pretty weak. Tehra is not for the casual gamer who wants to just run in, whack baddies and look at the pretty sights. StormBASIC has purposefully designed a difficult game that can’t be breezed through and tossed aside in a day.

The controls work well with the left corner d-pad but I found it difficult to run up to a fallen foe and perform a quick killing stab. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn’t. Speed is one of Tehra’s best assets besides her killer body as you can outrun the monsters and plan your attack. Unfortunately, Tehra can’t flip or perform acrobatic moves as her melee attacks are limited. Money, along with a few potions, are found in chests scattered about which you can use to upgrade your magic and combat skills by tapping on the book in the upper right corner. Some of her magic attacks are fireball, electric arrow, Death leap and electrical explosion. There are rings that are dropped by monsters which give you increased resistance and claws that better absorb mana. You’ll need to grab these.

The music is a stirring match for the frantic action and along with good sound effects creates a dramatic atmosphere. There are occasional clipping issues with monsters disappearing into walls and one instance where I couldn’t pick up the coins from a chest but overall Tehra is well-presented and designed. There are some mindless challenges like survival or clear a level in 3 ½ min.

Tehra: Dark Warrior is not for everyone but for those who think Iphone games are too easy, Tehra should offer a challenge. It’s long, difficult and good looking and although it’s a bit of a button-mashing hack-n-slash it demands thoughtful play to advance. I’m not looking for this much work in my games or my women so I’ll give it 3.5 stars and move on as it becomes tiresome to fail so much.