Jack n' Jill (iOS)

Every now and then you come across a title that, at first glance, looks like an over-simplistic throwaway, but in execution it brings you back to your earliest gaming days in a mix of nostalgia and old-school gaming challenge.  I recently experienced that playing through Jack n' Jill, a humble little iOS title that proves much more exciting that it appears at first glance.

Released to the App Store in 2013, Jack n' Jill, the work of one Rohan Narang, immediately brings up memories of playing original Game Boy.  This is owing to its monochromatic, slightly pixelated visuals and even the flat, slightly faded background images.  The only thing missing is the greenish tint of the Game Boy's tiny LCD screen, but there's no sense in going overboard, is there?

You play as an adorable little white blob named Jack and are trying to reunite with an even more adorable bow-wearing blob named Jill.  Right off the bat the game had me thinking of Kirby, although Kirby has such an intentionally generic design (the character was originally created as a place-holder until the design team decided to keep him) that it could just as easily bring up memories of The Adventures of Lolo or Nuts and Milk (anyone?).  Although the game has a couple of enemies you may encounter, there is no villain.  The game doesn't seem to need one, as Jill apparently has a habit of getting herself stuck in the most precarious situations imaginable.  Jack must really love this girl, because she is awfully high-maintenance.

The love-life of the game's protagonists aside, the next standout aspect is the control.  Jack n' Jill has a one-button control scheme.  What I mean by that is, you tap the screen (this being an iOS game), and it doesn't matter where you tap, the function is always the same: Jack will jump.  You can tap quickly for a short jump or hold for a long jump, but that's it, with the sole exception a power-up that allows you to fly by tapping repeatedly.  In a way this is one of the things that drew me to the game after a screenshot caught my attention with its old-school visuals; how can a game only have a single button?  This wasn't a mindless "non-game" like Cookie Clicker, so I had to check it out to learn what this meant.  What I discovered was pleasantly surprising, and leads right into the gameplay:

The gameplay in Jack n' Jill is a cross between a platformer and a puzzle game.  In terms of level design and overall experience, it is a platformer, but the control scheme borrows from the arcade-puzzle genre.  At the start of each level, Jack sits quietly, staring you down through your screen.  Tap the screen, and off he goes, running devil-may-care through the level.  If there is a pit, a spike, or any other obstacle, he will run headlong to his doom like a fat little lemming.  You need to react quickly to what is ahead and time your jumps to clear the obstacles.  Now, if this is all there was to the game, it would just be another endless runner, but despite the simplistic control, the gameplay runs deeper than that.  Jack can change direction, but only if he hits a wall.  So running Jack into walls will become necessary to move from one side of the level to the other.  Jack can also wall-jump to scale new heights, collect power-ups that increase his running speed, allowing him to clear longer obstacles, or that will temporarily allow him to fly.  At the start the levels are slow and simple, easing you in as it begins introducing new obstacles and moves.  Half-way through each of the game's 7 worlds, a new power-up, move or obstacle will be introduced.  This results in a difficulty level that increases very gradually.  The first world is cute but slow-paced and fairly easy, but by the time you hit world 7 you'll be pulling your hair out as the game refuses to give you a break and a single slip-up spells doom.  Still, by the time you reach this frantic point, the game has trained you so well that you know you can beat it, even if it takes you a hundred deaths to do it (it will).

You can download the game and play the whole thing with a banner ad if you choose.  The ad squashes the playfield, but if you're feeling cheap or just want to test the game first the option is open to you.  $0.99 removes the ad, and it is money well spent.  Once the game hooks you, you will want to play through all 140 levels and doing so with an ad on the screen is just no way to live.  It's a very modest price for such a solid, addictive and challenging game.  Apart from the fact that the start of the game is almost too easy, the only downside for me is the music.  While the visuals bring up images of the Game Boy, the soundtrack is just too beepy, more like it was written for an old internal PC speaker.  Personally I just turned the sound off, seeing as the game has a handy mute function in the corner of the screen.  I recommend Jack n' Jill to anyone with an iOS device and a fondness for the gaming days of yore.

Toca Nature

This is the second time I’ve played a Toca Boca title, (the first being last Halloween’s release of Toca Boo), and I continue to be impressed.  As noted in my review of Toca Boo, Toca Boca’s titles are digital toys for iOS and Android.  As such, Toca Nature is not a game with rules and objects; rather, a sandbox for building and exploring and just having fun.

The premise is simple: you start out with a small, unspectacular block of land and a series of buttons that allow you to make mountains,  dig streams and plant trees.  Anyone who has played a game of Sim City should be familiar with the basic idea: select the mountains, and draw your finger across the landscape.  Wherever your finger touches, the land will be built up just a bit.  Keep scribbling in the same spot and it will continue to grow into a snowy peak.  Likewise, take the river tool and your finger will instead carve out valleys which will fill with water once you dig deep enough.

There are animals associated with the different terrains and with the different trees that you can plant.  Wolves will spring to life when mountains are created, beavers will shuffle about the shores of your streams, and depending on the types of trees you plant, you can have bears, birds and bunnies (oh my!) in addition to other critters.

Various sources of food will pop up in your landscape: fish in the streams, berries and mushrooms and acorns on the land.  You can watch the animals forage for their favorite treats, or collect them yourself and offer them to the creatures to watch their reactions.  The rabbits seem interested in anything that grows, but the game surprised me when I tossed a fish at one.  I was expecting it would ignore it, but the rabbit hopped up to the fish, sniffed it curiously, then shook its head and hopped away.  It’s touches like this that make a game special.

You can continue to alter the land to your liking in real-time, and have the ability to zoom  and explore your creation up close.  The sound effects are immersive and the game cycles through day and night.  There is also a camera mode that allows you to snap photos as you explore.

The title is delightful; it has character, creativity and charm.  As an adult I found it to be adorable and relaxing, but no doubt it will have more interest to the younger crowd for whom it is intended.  I would recommend it for anyone with small children, or if you just want a more adorable way to unwind than the typical “relaxation” apps you’ll find scattered about.

H.E.R.O.

H.E.R.O. belongs to that pool of classic games that didn't get its start in an arcade and doesn't get a lot of fanfare, but nevertheless since the time of its original release (back in 1984) it has never disappeared, but has been ported and emulated to numerous platforms.

Designed by Activision for the Atari 2600, the game sets itself apart right from the beginning as a multiple screen adventure with distinct levels.  This was uncommon on the 2600 as most games tended to be arcade ports or simple, single-screen affairs where level progression meant harder, faster enemies.  H.E.R.O. has structure: each level is different, grows larger, and sets the game apart.  It also sported clean, detailed graphics (detailed for the 2600, anyway) and smooth character animation.

The game's plot involves a one-man rescue operation as you race underground in search of trapped miners.  Each level has a single miner to save, trapped at the bottom of a mine shaft.  As the hero, you are equipped with a helicopter pack which enables you to fly, a limited supply of dynamite and a helmet-mounted laser.  You must fly over pits and underground pools of water, shoot deadly spiders, bats and snakes and blast away walls blocking your path.  Your suit has a limited amount of power, which acts as a timer, so you have to reach the bottom of the shaft as quickly as possible to extract the miner.

It feels less like a 2600 game and more like something you'd play on one of the home computers of the time.  In fact, it was ported to several different home computer and console systems.  My first exposure to the title was not the 2600 version, but the Commodore 64 port.  Across the different versions, gameplay and level design remain the same, but graphics we improved on.  In my opinion the Commodore 64 is the superior version as it adds greater detail; the levels look more like old, dark caverns.

The physics of the game add greatly to both the challenge and the fun.  The helicopter pack operates in a realistic manner (or as realistic a manner as one can imagine a helicopter pack operating): Once activated, the propeller begins spinning, but takes a second to actually generate lift, and then slowly increases in speed as you take off.  Likewise, if you drop off a ledge and then switch the pack on, the first effect will be that as the propeller begins to spin your descent will slow, then gradually begin to pull you upward.  The physics involve allow you to maneuver extremely well, even while they make you sweat, such as when dropping underneath a low-hanging rock, your feet just barely skimming the surface of a pool of water.

This is not an action game per-say.  There are things to shoot, but mostly because they are blocking your way.  The ultimate goal is to find your way down the shaft to the trapped miner, and as shafts grow longer and more difficult, caution must be melded with speed as you work your way downward.  It is a rewarding game, one that stresses you out one second as you fight against the clock and narrowly thread your way past deadly obstacles, but then makes you feel so dang good once you finally make it and reach the miner with moments to spare.  It's a true "just one more level" kind of game.

As for longevity, the game (in its Atari 2600 form at least) has been included on numerous complications.  It can be played on iOS as part of the Activision Anthology and XBox 360 as part of the Microsoft Game Room.  It's a real underdog title that doesn't get a lot of attention, and yet seems to be in no danger of disappearing from the gaming world any time soon.