Barry Steakfries probably shouldn’t be so curious and heroic. Just saying based on past experience from playing some of Halfbrick’s (developer of widely popular, Fruit Ninja) games; it seems as if he’s found yet another absurd way to threaten his existence, and that’s in the newest game to be added to Halfbrick’s collection of iOS games, onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/itunes.apple.com/app/jetpack-joyride/id457446957?mt=8');" target="_blank" href="http://itunes.apple.com/app/jetpack-joyride/id457446957?mt=8">Jetpack Joyride.
I’ve got this gem of a game in my hands for the better of the past day and a half, and it’s been an absolute thrill to play. If you saw the trailer that we href="http://www.iphonealley.com/blog/halfbricks-new-game-jetpack-joyride-releases-september-1st">posted just the other day, then you’re probably familiar with the twist Jetpack Joyride has to offer on the popular casual genre seen across the App Store in many varieties nowadays.
You’ll control the, in my opinion, Chuck Norris-esque character, Barry Steakfries, who has gotten too curious (yet again) and has found himself in a secret underground lair flying a jetpack for the pure purpose of receiving satisfaction. You can see the trailer if you’ve got any question having to do with just exactly why he decided to go steal a jetpack being tested on from a bunch of scientists. Oops, did I spoil it?
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So basically you’re in control of this seemingly-crazy dude who has the urge to be flying a jetpack despite the fact that there are tons of obstacles littering his path every “meter” of the way. You’ll have to get pretty familiar with your iPhone’s touchscreen, which is made easy thanks to the one-button control scheme, because the game involves ton of tricky maneuvers and such to get out of the way of lasers, zappers, moving lasers, moving zappers, rockets and a whole lot more.
You can also collect coins while flying as well as spin coins, officially speaking, which will give you one spin on a roulette full of perks after you die. There is also an item that will change Barry’s jetpack into one of many different vehicles, which will have different ways to be controlled, and will switch back to the jetpack once you collide with an obstacle.
You’ve really got to admire the evident time that was put into the game. First off, the visuals are absolutely stunning. They retain Halfbrick’s wonderful pixel artwork, while also staying polished and bright. Second, depth is added to the game with the various windows giving way to scenes of piles of coins and such off in the distance, which is great. And third, you’ve really got to admire the fact that the scientists are dumb enough to run straight into electric zappers parallel to the ground and get zapped by them; pure Halfbrick humor./> href="http://www.iphonealley.com/application_reviews/jetpack-joyride-app-review-this-doesnt-even-need-alliteration-to-sound-cool/attachment/jetpackjoyridescreen_05" rel="attachment wp-att-21902">src="http://www.iphonealley.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/JetpackJoyrideScreen_05-e1314914133514.jpg" alt="" title="JetpackJoyrideScreen_05" width="640" height="426" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-21902" />/> Not only does the game have an almost infinite amount of replay value, but it’s also got a ton of missions that can be completed while playing the main meat of the game. At every moment, there are three challenges available to be completed, which will result in gaining stars to ultimately rank up. Each time you collect a certain amount of stars, you’ll rank up to the next class starting with some sort of noob-analogous rank and ending in a professional-analogous rank. Each time you gain an additional rank, you’ll earn coins to be spent on items in an in-game shop. In the shop, you can purchase different outfits for Barry, different types of jetpacks, upgrades to the multiple vehicles, single-use perks that can help you get further and more. It’s a challenge to purchase some of the more expensive items, (even though you also collect coins while playing), and I’d really like to see new additions to the inventory. It would’ve been even cooler if the different jetpacks had perks.
That said, even though the game’s elements are pretty much completely random and do correlate with one another, in most instances, Halfbrick has done it again by creating yet another onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/itunes.apple.com/app/jetpack-joyride/id457446957?mt=8');" target="_blank" href="http://itunes.apple.com/app/jetpack-joyride/id457446957?mt=8">$0.99, casual time-waster that will be sure to suck you in for hours on end – 2,000 hours to be exact, which is believable considering they’ve got some enticing gameplay, more missions than you can shake a stick at, and a store loaded to the brim with awesome items.
I can almost guarantee that Jetpack Joyride will in fact be your cup of tea, regardless of the types of games that you do like. To say the least, it’s an absolute superb application that literally made me want to fly all the way over to Australia and give every one of the Halfbrick guys a huge hug.
