There’s something so satisfying about pegging someone unawares with a water balloon. It’s something vestigial from childhood, this desire to catch someone off guard and pelt him with an array of plastic bombs in some very boyish act of guerrilla warfare. Of course, on the receiving end it’s not only annoying, it’s drenching, and generally results in some curled fists and curses to the high heavens.

Water Balloon Drop Hollywood by app developer 3D Joe is a mouthful of an iPhone game that takes this childishly simple premise of balloon throwing into a full fledged game with objectives and surprisingly difficult levels. With 8 levels – of 6 rounds each – of being precariously perched atop buildings, awaiting the perfect moment to drop that waterlogged balloon on some unsuspecting head, Water Balloon Drop makes for several hours of solid fun that surprisingly – despite the continual loop of throwing water balloons at person after person – doesn’t feel trite and hackneyed.

The slightly crude, cartoonish drawings make for an amusing setting, and the characters, all 99 of them, are individually and artistically rendered, often in forms that slightly resemble caricatures of actual celebrities. In some dry wit on the developer’s part, you may play as either Hydro or Hydra, a boy and girl of indeterminate age whose names directly reflect their love of flinging water-filled plastic bombs (hydro- and hydra- are greek prefixes for water). Hydra, in particular, is the more grossly characterized, with her 80’s hairdo of high ponytail and pink scrunchie, her protuberant frog eyes and skeletal lips thinly stretched over her mouth of uncouth, crooked and gapped teeth. Perhaps it’s fitting that a Hydra is also known as a Greek mythological creature, an ancient nameless serpent-like water beast that possessed 9 heads and terrorized neighboring villages with its virulent breath– much how in this game you terrorize the local Hollywood patrons with your water balloons.

After selecting a character the game enthusiastically prompts you through a brief tutorial on how to play (“let’s learn how to play!”), all narrated in the same cliché, quintessential Hollywood TV announcer voice; this voice is heard narrating in all its epic glory throughout the entire game, but succeeds in never grating the nerves, merely producing an odd chuckle here and there (or in my case, a sudden case of speaking in the exaggerated emphasis of a TV announcer). The game uses the iPhone as a movement-sensitive controller, where tilting the iPhone left or right moves your character, and shaking the iPhone drops a balloon. A simple tap on the screen will make your character duck. The controls are easy enough in principle, but I found there was quite the learning curve in becoming comfortably fluid when playing, perhaps a bit more than is usual.

The true objective of Water Balloon Drop Hollywood is to drench enough people and earn enough points to gradually, and arduously, make it to the giant Hollywood sign – a feat, I’ll admit frankly, I have yet to accomplish. The game proves to be exceptionally challenging with each ensuing level, as more characters appear on the “Do Not Hit” list and more birds and planes pose threats in pounding against your character’s head with a concussion-inducing “POW.” Each level situates your character atop a building, sometimes it’s a theater, sometimes it’s a fast food concession stand, and sometimes you may be perched on a higher ledge, making aiming a bit more difficult.

About the hit lists. Each level, like a sniper you’re given a “Hit List” of people to freely target without problems of repercussion – slamming officers in blue with a water treat is generally not a good idea for the socially rebellious, and shocking poor little grandmas with wobbling gaits and canes is just plain rude. Each of these water balloon atrocities, these wartime collateral damages, will drop your score by 20-25 points, which is really detrimental to achieving that minimum score to pass to the next level, especially when the allotted time is a scant 45 seconds. This amount of time is preciously short when after being hit for the second time in a row, most people on the hit list will skedaddle the hell out of there, cursing in their wake.

Starting on the first level, the Hit List contains an array of shady looking characters, as if Hydro and Hydra are targeting the denigrates and wannabe pompous elitists of society. There is Bobby, an average joe of even more average name with a slight double chin; Chuck, the slightly perverted-looking, 70’s glasses-wearing nerd with large, protuberant teeth; Fernando, the Hispanic gigolo with moustache; Griff, the John Lennon poser; Ruff, the happy cream-colored German Shepherd; Twish, the token hot woman with ridiculous name more befitting of her swish hairdo; and Walt, the fly riddled, bug-eyed homeless man, i.e. the homeowner challenged, the hygienically challenged. With each level, new characters are added to the Hit List that seemingly cover all fashion demographics, from gothic to punk to frou frou blonde girl with Chihuahua, and even in Level 3 a man who looks uncannily like the suave Johnny Depp. I particularly like how you may target Mo the taxi man, but must refrain from targeting the aristocratic Arnold in his sleek grey Rolls Royce. Frankly, I’d be more afraid of the consequences of pegging the tired and spent taxi man with burly forearms than the servant-laden, blue-blooded aristocrat, but that’s just me.

To pass to the next level, you must earn a minimum amount of points by hitting targets from your Hit List. A first hit earns 10 points, but if you hit the same person a second and third time, these increase to 15 and 20. Some people are worth more than others, and each level requires a higher minimum amount of points to proceed forward (the first level requires 70 points to advance to the next round, and this increases by 10 points per round until you reach the next level, where point increases become more dramatic). Every now and then other items will appear alongside the unaware pedestrians below, such as an ammo fairy who will give you more ammo, a clock, a jar of slime that will slow you down, a light bulb that will cause a blackout, and many more. Should you either not drench enough people to earn points, lose too many points from hitting Grandma and men in blue, get swatted in the face by a bird or plane, run out of ammo (this is what happens to me most), or accidentally fall off the building ledge to be bandaged and splinted, the next screen will show a nice, big red FAIL stamped on your results, and you must do the level over again. Trust me, when learning the controls in the beginning, you’ll be seeing this FAIL stamp often, and as you progress through the more challenging upper levels, you’ll be seeing it even more often.

On another note of warning, you have 5 lives per game, and once you expend all of these, the game will happily chirp a “game over” and you must exit and re-enter the game, going through screen after screen advertising 3D Joe’s other games, still in that incessantly cheerful, robotic TV announcer voice over; it’s not terribly bad, though, as your game saves at the beginning of each new level, making it easy to start fresh with new lives.

Currently on sale for $0.99, Water Balloon Drop Hollywood is extraordinarily satisfying with its fleshy water sound effects and big-headed cartoonish characters you slam, hurl, smack, hit, and peg in the head with blue water balloons. The game is challenging enough to keep you interested, and should you ever need extra oomph for the game, play some of your iPhone music in the background to bebop to the splish-splash of your balloon tosses. Cheap, fun and amusing, Water Balloon Hollywood whets the appetite for filling up water balloons after work and launching some over the fence at your friend or neighbor.