Bounce On Review

It’s a safe bet that the developers at Team Phobic the makers of the new iDevice game entitled Bounce On must have spent some quality time playing the Mario games over the years as Bounce On seems to be heavily influenced by the series.

Bounce on is a story about a ball who has fallen out of it’s owners pockets and his adventure trying to make it back home.

Bounce on is composed of 15 levels of gameplay, consisting of 3 difficultly levels spread throughout the world.

The Objective of each level is to simply get to the cannon at the end and unlock more of the map, bringing you one step closer to your home.

Movement is accomplished by tilting the device left or right. Pressing anywhere on the screen will make you bounce, and the longer you hold your finger down the higher you will bounce which comes in handy for climbing higher objectives throughout the game. You can also utilize your bounce to destroy the numerous enemies by jumping on their heads. Thus allowing you to dig out extra diamonds and explore those troublesome areas you will encounter along the way.

Throughout the levels you will gain additional power-ups to help Bounce on his journey, some of these will grant you the ability to jump higher and longer allowing you to traverse longer gaps and walls, or simply make you indestructible for a limited amount of time. Hidden throughout each level is a gold coin as well which will grant you an additional life.

If you can’t manage to find these don’t fret as there is no real penalty for dying. You will simply have to start the level over and you will be granted 2 additional lives.

Upon completing each level you will either be granted a bronze, silver or gold ribbon based on your completion of the level, overall time, and the number of diamonds you collected, and while this has no baring on the story it’s self it’s been implemented as a way to add some replay ability and challenge modes to the game.

The first few levels are quite easy but rest assured the level of difficulty ramps up quickly. If I could give one piece of advise to anyone playing Bounce On it would be TAKE YOUR TIME. Do not go rushing against the clock your first time through as you will surely be frustrated quickly.

Graphically Bounce On has the Mario color template down pat, sporting bright green landscapes, shinny red blocks, yellow stars, blue diamonds and yes green clovers.

While each level has its own rewards and challenges there are a few aspects of the game which I feel need some adjustment. many of the levels feel the same. There are very few differences in most levels and a few changes in backdrops would help to break up the monotony.

The controls could be tightened up as well. As it stands now your character seems to feel a bit floaty, and while we are speaking of character the plain non descriptive red ball leaves a lot to be desired. Mario is great because he is a character with some personality something Bounce is sorely lacking. Bounce needs something to make him more interesting. Some eyes, some hair or a hat would be a good start.

The music used throughout the game while decent just didn’t jive for this type of game, I was expecting something light whimsical but instead got some quasi techno tracks and while serviceable it just doesn’t feel quite right.

Bounce on is fun and challenging Marioesch game, and fans of platform and Mario games should definitely give it a look.

If the developers can irons out these few issues we could potentially be witnessing the birth of an new iDevice franchise!

[Rating:8/10]

I received an email from Team Phobic and they have confirmed there are some updates on the way, and that with major update will come withe a new world as well as some other new things, adding even more replay ability to the game.