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Review: Jetpack Joyride

I fell in love with Halfbrick the first time I played Raskulls at GenCon (may it rest in peace, and hopefully come back from the dead as a shiny and friendly zombie). Since then I have jumped on every title they have released – Fruit Ninja, Monster Dash and Age of Zombies specifically. Following the latter two is the third game featuring the protagonist, Barry Steakfries: Jetpack Joyride. I suppose you could even call this latest instalment a spin-off from Monster Dash; based on one of the power-ups available in the game – the Machine Gun Jet Pack for iOS.

As only Halfbrick can, this simple arcade game is given a quirky backstory seen in the official trailer.

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Barry, who I assume is a traveling gramophone salesman, happens across a secret testing laboratory working on a jet pack. He imagines all the wonderful things he’d be able to do; promptly mans up, steals the pack and is on the run to escape the scientist’s lab. With simple one-touch play, you control the jet pack’s propulsion to guide Barry though an accelerating, randomly generated gauntlet of zappers, missiles and coins. To make things more interesting, there’s a variety of vehicles to aid you in your escape, each with their own unique mechanic. Once you die, it’s not over! Collecting spin tokens as you play gives you the opportunity to score a second chance, some bonus coins or utility items to help you go that little bit further.

Rather than going for the standard fare for these sort of side-scrolling tapfests, there is never the single goal of getting as far as you can. At any one time, there are 3 missions active ranging from traversing a certain distance in a vehicle and collecting a set number of coins to high-fiving scientists and having near-missed with zappers. Completing these missions earns you stars toward your ranking, where levelling up rewards you with a sweet payout. Once you’ve completed all the missions, you’re welcome to do them again and again (and you’ll want to!) for additional rewards and medals.

What fun would this sort of game be without the ability to purchase utility items, vehicle upgrades, new costumes and fantastic new jetpacks? I’m currently a fan of the top hat with the lab coat strapped to a rainbow-powered jet pack. While it’s not uncommon for games to offer you in-game coins for real money, I love the addition of a “counterfeit machine” which doubles the amount of coins you collect in the game, forever! At 99c, it’s well worth it if you enjoy playing the game (which is only a dollar in itself!).

The only downside I’ve found is that I keep going back to it. Repeatedly (I keep telling myself, “Just one more try to get that Germaphobe achievement. Come on, I can do it!”). Some people may find that once you get used to the mission types, they can be a bit samey, but they’re cycled through enough that you never feel like you’re grinding out for the same objectives each time.

Once again, Halfbrick have nailed the genre, proving that they completely understand they platform they are developing for. Easy enough to be pick-up-and-play without any explanation, but balanced with being challenging enough to have you craving just one more game.


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