Blade aficionados Small Ball and gaming goliath Activision have teamed up to promote the publisher’s upcoming release Prototype 2 on the App Store. ProtoSlice [Free / HD] is the name of the combined effort and it’s been available as a free download since earlier last week.

ProtoSlice isn’t in unfamiliar creative territory for Small Ball. The game tasks users with pressing humongous buttons while avoiding and maneuvering sharp blades… which is pretty much what you do in Small Ball’s other blade game, Slice [$2.99 / HD]. The catch in this one is that the blades are actually Prototype 2 protagonist James Heller’s mutated hands. Heller is a viral freak, much like the series first dark hero Alex Mercer.

A tie-in game from Activision? It’s pretty common. As TUAW points out and we’ve talked about before on our show, Activision is not all that into the App Store despite raking in the dough with Call of Duty: Zombies [$4.99]. The trend for the publisher with its releases indicates that its more interested in promotion or exploitation than anything else. ProtoSlice’s release is further is reinforcing this perception of the publisher’s desires. Other big name publishers out there might be leveraging existing IP, but they’re also creating new ones, too.

Anyway, ProtoSlice is a thing that you can play now, and if you’re a fan of the series in question here, you probably want to check it out. It’s loaded with little images and links to more information about Prototype 2, which is cool. I guess.