Why is this game so fun?!
Jetpack Joyride's premise is pretty simple, you control Barry on a jetpack, collect coins and avoid obstacle for as long as possible. Think Canabalt with a jetpack and no buildings. While this is the basis of the gameplay, the missions are truly the core. You will be challenged to perform a certain number of feats to earn between 1-3 stars. Stars are needed to level up. Leveling up doesn't contribute to any stat building or anything but rather just unlocks more and challenging missions. While missions can be challenging, they never feel overwhelming. The coins you collect can be used to buy new customary gear such as more jetpacks, clothes, upgrades, and gadgets for Barry. You can also collect special coins which you can use at the end of every run to either win bonuses via a slot machine or cash them in for more coins. Bonuses can range from doubling coin value the next turn, allowing you another chance at your current turn, more coins, blowing Barry's body a few more feet from where its currently laying, etc. Also, there are vehicles that can be used throughout each run. From robotic dragons to roaring motorcylces. As stated before, you can upgrade this vehicles using coins stored in your "stash". Most of the items you purchase is on the high side (I don't believe that there is literally anything below 2,000 coins), so the game encourages spending some time playing in order to obtain the unlockables.
One thing that I will critizes is the game's lack of explanation of the Vita controls. It took me the longest time to figure out that you actually have to control Barry with your finger using the back touch pad...which occassionally presents another problem. It can be easy to screw up on the game due to the game picking up another finger that may be unintentionally touching the back control pad. So more than likely, you find yourself holding your Vita in a kind of awkward postion in an attempt to avoid unintentional manuvers. After getting pass this issue, Jetpack Joyride feels right at home on the Vita. After playing this version and the PS3 version, I can say that the game feels more like a "Vita" game than anything else. If I were a betting man, I'd bet I would say the same thing about this compared to the PSP version as well.
Besides what you see in the trailer, there is no story or any other characters. In essence, Jetpack Joyride is a mini game, so why would there be?
My Breakdown:
What's Good:
- Essentially, a PSP Mini with trophy support!
- Fun and addictive gameplay
- Coin collecting is fun and rewarding
- Cool arsenal of randomly generated vehicles
- Missions feel challenging but fair
- Playing the slot machine for added bonuses
- Nice array of unlockables
What's Not-So-Good:
- A change in enviornment would have been nice
- ^ More variety of obstacles and music to go with these different enviornments
What's Bad:
- Good explaination of game controls on the Vita
- Way too easy to mismanuver with super sensitive back touchpad
In all, despite a few of the issues that I initially had with the controls, Jetpack Joyride is hard to put down once I got started. It definately brings the spirit of the PSP Minis to a new format and one can only hope the Big Ant and other developers may give some other previously released Minis the same treatment.