Double Review: Temple Run & Jetpack Joyride
Double Review: Temple Run & Jetpack Joyride
Developed by Imangi Studios and Halfbrick Studios. Available on the Apple App Store.
The magical game Canabalt was a simple, unassuming experiment that hit its stride by breaking away from internet Flash arcades and appearing on the platform that best suited it, the mobile phone. Its success led to the creation of a bandwagon of fast-running, high-jumping, danger-dodging games on the App Store, but most of them have failed to distinguish themselves. Now we have two, Temple Run and Jetpack Joyride, that have hit upon that golden hook that most gamers will find irresistible: unlockables.
Both games start with similar premises: while Guy Dangerous, the Indiana Jones-alike of Temple Run, swipes a golden idol and runs from the strange monkey monsters guarding it. Meanwhile, Halfbrick mascot Barry Steakfries literally bursts into a secret military laboratory and steals the machine-gun jetpack from Monster Dash just for the lolz of it. Now our two heroes have to make a break for it, weaving past hazards and grabbing coins for as long as possible.
Both games use methods of control unusual to this genre. Temple Run uses upward swipes on the screen to make your treasure hunter leap pits, and downward swipes to make him slide beneath gates or low branches. You can tilt your device to veer left and right and grab coins on the edge of the road, or to keep to narrow paths. Though the swiping action requires a split second of reaction time, the game’s over-the-shoulder perspective makes oncoming dangers easy to see.
In Jetpack Joyride, you need only touch the screen to control Barry, but as you run through the lab, you’ll come across glowing packages containing numerous crazy vehicles, and each one operates differently. The default jetpack rises steadily when you touch the screen. The Gravity Suit swaps gravity between the floor and ceiling with each touch. The Profit Bird flaps its wings once with a touch, and it functions like the ostriches in Joust. My favorite vehicle, Mr. Cuddles, is a massive metal dragon that swoops downward and belches flames when you touch the screen. Adapting to the different methods of control for each vehicle as you fly face-first into oncoming barriers and missiles is part of Jetpack’s thrill.
These games are fast-paced, arcade experiences that usually end with a single slip-up, but their designers wisely tapped into the Achievement addiction of today’s gaming culture, and packed their games with enough objectives, missions, and in-game merchandise to keep you playing for weeks.
Those coins aren’t just for show; the more you gather, the closer you get to buying neat stuff from the in-game stores, which are available between games. Temple Run’s store offers upgrades to the game’s useful pickups, which include coin-sucking magnets and invincibility from obstacles. As you power up the power-ups, you can make them last longer or appear more frequently. You can also buy resurrection wings to save yourself from death, or head-starts that instantly boost you ahead a kilometer when you start a game. Jetpack Joyride’s store sells some similar utilities, but sadly, most of the tchotchkes available are just cosmetic. You can get a whole wardrobe of costumes for Barry, a variety of jetpacks (though they all function the same way), and gold finishes for your special vehicles, and none of them are cheap.
So you have the game’s stores dangling carrots in front of you, but you also have special challenges beckoning you. In Temple Run, these are called objectives, and in Jetpack Joyride, they’re called missions. Many of them involve simple repeated tasks, such as enhancing each power-up once in Temple, or touching fifteen red background lights in Jetpack. Many of these require that you complete a task in one game, but many others stack up across games until they’re completed, so even if you screw up and have a bad run, you’ll still feel like you made progress toward achieving something. Jetpack Joyride takes it a step further by giving you stars for each completed mission, which act as experience points that raise your “level.” It’s unclear whether your level affects anything during play, but the promise of earning that precious, if meaningless, LEVEL UP is a hell of a motivator. Imangi and Halfbrick are to be commended for taking a short-term joy and lending it a long-term draw.
Both games use different graphical styles, but they both look gorgeous, with sharp imagery that takes full advantage of Retina-equipped devices. Temple Run is fully 3D, with eye-pleasing, vine-covered temple architecture surrounding you, while Jetpack Joyride hits you with cute characters, clever backgrounds (this military lab is apparently somewhere deep in the ocean and houses massive treasuries), and joyous particle effects that spray across the screen.
Jetpack comes out on top in audio, however. Its sound effects are boisterous and enjoyable, with each vehicle, footstep, laser, and guided missile making an appropriate and satisfying sound. The gameplay music takes it over the top, though. This is one of the catchiest pieces of music I’ve heard all year, in or out of a game, and I made sure to go to Halfbrick’s website so I could put it in my music library and rock out to it during my commute. Have a listen at the following link:
http://halfbrick.bandcamp.com/album/jetpack-joyride-original-soundtrack
Temple Run’s music and sound aren’t bad, but they seem strictly utilitarian, and they’re not as exciting as those in Jetpack. The footsteps, grunts, and supernatural power-up effects are all present, and they do their job, but they lack character. The music is a plain conga rhythm, that familiar backbeat that most of us would associate with a jungle setting in the movies, but you never get a melody. Too bad.
With their impressive presentations and addictive gameplay, Temple Run and Jetpack Joyride are nothing short of fantastic. They’ve taken elements from the early, “wild west” days of the market, and joined them with console concepts that are proven to appeal to hardcore gamers. It’s this type of games that took mobile phone gaming from lackluster and limp to legitimate and exciting. Some might denounce endless-running games as shallow, the “fast food” of video games, but at only a couple of bucks a piece, these two games will surely give you more enjoyment for your pocket change than any bag of french fries. Download these!
Controller1.com rating: 3/3
