Anyone can make a halfway decent iOS game these days, but to create a hit, there’s three criteria: gorgeous graphics, replayability, and simple controls. Built around spectacular frozen sculptures that are quickly blown to bits, Amazing Breaker has this formula down to a science.

Even as I’m writing this I want to play, but it took quite a few games to warm up to its unique gameplay. Controls are relatively easy to learn (criterion No. 1) but the game’s puzzling objective and repetitive nature can be initially frustrating. Players are presented with beautifully intricate crystallized carvings (criterion No. 2) and given a series of bombs and a slingshot. After a few false starts, I quickly realized that I needed to strategically place the bombs for maximum destruction. Razing 90 percent of the object earns one of three stars and advancement to the next level, but the real challenge is complete annihilation, where the physics comes into play.

If you've ever looked at an ice sculpture and thought, "I wish I had a bomb to throw at that," you'll love Amazing Breaker.

To level the structure, every angle and ricochet of iPhone’s 3.5-inch screen will be utilized to set up bomb “chains” to up the explosion ante. Most bombs do more than just explode, adding another level of strategy (and unlike Angry Birds, the order of the projectiles can be changed), so the game gets pretty challenging after just a few levels, as sculptures get more intricate and more bombs are introduced.

It's just like Angry Birds, if the pigs were made of ice and all the birds blew up.

The right placement of bombs and sequence of explosions will accomplish the bare minimum to advance to the next level, but I quickly found myself repeating boards (criterion No. 3) to get the last 2 or 3 percent of the ice sculpture I left behind. Only 100 percent destruction will get you the coveted third star, so you’ll be restarting a lot (each time waiting through a just-long-enough-to-be-noticeable loading screen).

It may be pretty now, but it won't be for very long.

The bottom line. Amazing Breaker isn’t the only “ice-smashing physics game” in the App Store, but you needn’t download another.