Jetpack Joyride invites you to escape from a top-secret laboratory with stolen technology with the help of your jetpack. Despite the name of the game, this is not the easiest task for the players. They’ll have to dodge electric gates, rockets and a variety of other obstacles in this side-scrolling adventure inspired by secret agents.
With a jetpack strapped to your back, gameplay in Jetpack Joyride is fast paced with control, limited tapping, or holding your finger on the screen to influence the height your character climbs. Reminiscent of the popular game Flappy Birds, this control scheme provides a surprising amount of depth and control that requires careful balance. Alternatively, players also have the ability to run on the ground, though you often miss coins this way and can’t get past certain obstacles, which cloud the gameplay a bit.
In addition to the unique gameplay, Jetpack Joyride is different in that it offers a huge range of customization options that allow you to change the main character (Barry Steak fries) and his equipment in several ways. This includes all kinds of clothing, one-off utilities, gameplay-altering gadgets, various jetpacks, and even a range of vehicles. While all of these utilities and vehicles are essentially cosmetic, the consistent progression curve these items offer ensures you always have a medium-term goal to work towards.
Vehicles, in particular, bring a lot of variety to the Jetpack Joyride, and they can be randomly found in every game. They’ll run until you hit an obstacle, they’re a fantastic touch to the overall flow of the game, and their power, combined with their randomized spawning, ensures it’s always exciting when they spawn. These vehicles include a dragon, a motorcycle, a large mech, and even a gravity suit that allows you to switch between roof and floor. The most interesting of these vehicles, however, is the Crazy Teleporter, which will teleport you randomly, which drastically changes the gameplay when activated.
Considering the sheer number of these items in Jetpack Joyride, your path to unlocking them does indeed take a significant amount of time, and the number of items other than the time to unlock is slightly higher compared to similar games in the genre. This is most painful in the early stages of your experience, when the first hour gives players little opportunity to play, though after this barrier, Jetpack Joyride players will feel more comfortable.
Other notable features of the Jetpack Joyride include Spin Tokens, which you can find randomly and are quite hard to catch, but allow you to win all kinds of prizes and again add an extra layer of randomization and rewards. Jetpack Joyride also takes screenshots of each run and lets you save it to your photos to share with friends or on social media.
In Jetpack Joyride, you play as a retired sales manager. Things are not going well, sales are falling, and then our hero catches the eye of a jetpack in a secret laboratory that accidentally turned up along the way. Having shown miracles of perseverance and knowledge of the basics of subversion, the hero receives the coveted device and … then control is transferred to you.
The toy belongs to the genre of “endless” casual games. There is no designated ending and saves: if you are not lucky, then after the defeat you start from scratch. The developers generously showered the game with a variety of “chips”, thanks to which you will not get tired of playing soon.
You are required to fly as long as possible and collect the maximum number of coins and tokens. On the way to the records will constantly meet electric trips, rockets and laser grids. Falling into the arms of this “good” is highly discouraged – the game will end immediately. In addition to collecting any currency from a mysterious source, the so-called “missions” will come. These are mini-tasks, for the completion of which the game rating increases.
And if the rating doesn’t give you anything in particular, then the mentioned coins will obviously come in handy. With the internal currency of the game, you can buy new jetpacks, hero skins, vehicle upgrades and special abilities in the store. For those who are impatient, it is possible to exchange real money for game coins using in-app purchases.
Jetpack Joyride sports cute cartoon graphics with Retina support. There is nothing to complain about, everything is organic and beautiful. I especially liked the effect of the explosion, with a flying pile of rubbish and a cloud of dust. In flights, we are accompanied by an unobtrusive melody and sound effects. By the way, turning them off does not affect the perception of game reality in any way, which is good in public transport and office conditions. The controls are simple and involve only taps on the screen to activate the backpack, so it’s convenient to play in any position.
Various mechanisms deserve special attention. At the beginning of the game, you only have access to a jetpack based on a machine gun (yes, you fly due to the recoil of shots!). Then it will be possible to buy a more interesting unit on bubble, steam, laser or some other exotic thrust. By the way, buying a backpack changes not only the visual effects of its use, but also the flight characteristics of the hero. If you’re lucky, during the flight you can transfer to some curious device like a teleporter, gravity shoes, a motorcycle, and something else original.
The ending of the game is interesting. If you are unlucky and get shot down, then it’s okay – you can still fix it by playing the “one-armed bandit”. If luck favors 3 identical icons, you can get an increase in the collected money, a special opportunity, or a second chance. And here we return to the question of luck – a “second chance” will immediately return you to the game right from the place of your inglorious death. It is allowed to play the slot machine exactly as many times as the number of medals collected during the last flight. Agree, the idea is fresh and has not been seen in games before.
