Fiercely independent, AARDFG is a seriously high-octane kick in the teeth.
The gameplay itself revolves around jumping off of buildings, mountains, and other miscellaneous structures all the while trying to rack up points by pulling off dangerous in-air maneuvers. Two in particular are the bread and butter. "Kisses" give you 1,000 points per structure you come into close enough contact with and "Hugs" give you 100 points per second that you remain in close proximity to any structure. There are also scoring plates of a differing values that will add to your total. Sometimes these plates map out a logical path for you to take and other times they are devious distractions trying to tempt you away with large point values. In the most devilish cases they can be both within a period of five or ten seconds. At the end of every level you're given a rating of 1-5 stars and awarded "teeth" for earning more stars. Teeth act as tokens that you use to gradually unlock the 80 levels, comedic relief videos, and vital abilities found in the game.
The abilities which must be unlocked, but are absolutely vital to completing the game include a glove that lets you flip off or give the thumbs up to pedestrians and a shot of espresso that you can chug down once per jump that enables you to slow down time/space in exchange for mild color-blindness.
The game is simple to learn and the early levels are really well executed in terms of welcoming the uninitiated. But things are complicated at exactly the right pace. Almost every level has at least some sort of gimmick to keep you on your toes. Teleporters, jumpers, spinning structures, tubes, rings, mountains, and flying cars all make appearances as you work your way through the levels. Considering that the majority of this game consists of falling, the level designs had to be pretty unconventional. And yet despite paths from the left to right, spinning, and circling around buildings...the levels follow a certain logic and almost always conclude naturally. It's amazing how some of the more complicated levels lend themselves to natural paths that you'll find yourself repeating as you look for ways to perfect your score. Clearly they have tested these levels thoroughly and that really deserves recognition.
There's almost a kind of beauty to the gameplay mechanic of this game. Falling, but in a way that looks to preserve motion and momentum in the face of so many crazy and obvious obstructions. The kind of perfect movement it takes to earn five stars is often just as satisfying in and of itself. I can't remember the last time this happened to me in a game, but in AARDFG I frequently found myself involuntarily lunging my head to the left or right in response to the game or kicking one of my feet as if to propel me in the right direction. This phenomenon happens most right when I'm about to crash land and break all the bones in my body. Or when all that separates me from 1,000 more points and death is hair-thin. That's what you call immersive gaming and it's pretty impressive that a game with relatively simple graphics can elicit such a response.
In fact, the game's graphical style is more reminiscent of Audio Surf than it is of Mirror's Edge. It's almost a compromise actually. At some points I wish they had gone even further with the psychedelics and thrown any semblance of reality out the door. That kind of stuff can be really interesting when you're falling at 100mph. And yeah, it looks really cool. At the same time I also wished there moments when they incorporated some set pieces of real-life identifiable stuff. In other words, how about some levels where we're jumping off of the Space Needle? Or Mount Rushmore? I mean, who can't relate to the urge to jump off of Mnt. Everest on a psychedelic drug trip?
Either way, I think both Dejoban and game media companies like Gamespot are incorrectly marketing this game as "Sports" simply because the central mechanic was inspired by extreme base jumping. There's too much being made of that fact and it's doing the game a disservice. This is about the sport of base jumping in the same way that Super Mario Bros. is about plumbing. What we're talking about here is a fast-paced action game that any gamer can appreciate. Weighing risk vs reward is challenging when you only have milliseconds to do it, but it's also more exciting that way. Some of the levels have such a forgiving grading system that it's possible to ace them accidentally. Other levels demand perfect execution of a preconceived strategy you've created. I say this as more of an observation than a criticism.
Sadly, when AARDFG does fall short it's in areas that should be a given. The options screen is pretty bare and doesn't even allow for basic keyboard mapping. Which means that if you don't like the default keys the assign, you've got to do some dirty work on your own. A silly oversight.
Although the game has no overall story (or structure) that doesn't mean that it should grind to a halt the way it does. Racking up all of the 5-star ratings and more than 200k worth of teeth doesn't even garner an acknowledgment. Even the humorous fake radio newscasts that you're generally treated to when you unlock and play new levels just disappear towards the end.
With absolutely no built-in achievement system or online score competition the replay value really takes one for the team. In fact, beyond the star rating, the game doesn't even save your scores! That seems like an incredibly obvious omission in a game like this. Even your star rating isn't as obvious as it could be since the only way to see it is by selecting an individual level and looking at the text summary. There's no yellow glow for perfecting a level or something like that. In other words, for all of its successes that rise it above most of its indie contemporaries, there are still some REALLY rookie mistakes being made here.
The non-sequitor sense of humor that the game is fitting, even if some will appreciate it more than others. The tongue-in-cheek billboards and level titles are particularly amusing. On the other hand, the info-levels that basically contain silly little messages or random facts were a little too plentiful consider how often their content was recycled. It's a small complaint, but it seems like they could have done something better with the space. It's frustrating to note that most of it's shortcomings could have been easily corrected. But at the end of the day, there's nothing bad enough to stop me from enthusiastically recommending this game. Anyone willing to take this plunge will be happy they did. The main mechanics coupled with rock-solid level designs offer a really rewarding and satisfying challenge.