Game Review: Jetpack Jinx

Blast Off For Adventure! is the tagline that Sydney based developers Bubblegum Interactive have used for their new game Jetpack Jinx. The game is freemium based, so it’s free to download from Google Play and has additional in-app purchases you can make which will help you get through levels a little easier or make it a little more fun.

The game follows the adventures of an alien called Jinx who has crash landed on a planet and must return to his spaceship before his boss, the dastardly Lord Shadowbot finds out he’s gone. The concept of the game is extremely simple, playing as Jinx you are launched straight up out of a plant that has a look that is very reminiscent of Little Shop of Horrors, you then use the accelerometer in your phone to tilt it back and forth to control your flight path.

The aim of the game is to eventually reach the spaceship that Jinx fell from and to keep accelerating upwards you need to collect the jewels that are suspended in the air along the way. Intermixed with the jewels are power-ups and obstacles which will either help you to achieve your end goal or knock you back down to start again.

The power-ups are helpful, offering things like the Ultra-Rex (which will attack everything in your way) or the Mega Mouth (which will vacuum up all the gems on-screen as you pass by). On the flip side, the obstacles are also hard to miss. When you’re as uncoordinated as I am, you can often find yourself steering straight into even the stationary objects – add in obstacles that move, and I’m toast.

Throughout the game you accrue gold coins by either achieving scores or completing missions, and you can then use the coins to purchase powerups via the in-game store. Anything from Jetpack upgrades, clothing (bandanas or goggles), through to one-off powerups for your jetpack can be purchased with these coins, but they are fairly slow to accumulate – obviously, this is where the freemium-based nature of the game comes into play. Extra coin packs can be purchased via in-app purchase via the Google Play Store:

• Coin Pack 1 – 10,000 Coins – $0.99USD
• Coin Pack 2 – 25,000 Coins – $1.99USD
• Coin Pack 3 – 50,000 Coins – $2.99USD

But if that isn’t your cup of tea then Bubblegum Interactive has also given you some options to grab some free coins by interacting on Google Play, Facebook or Twitter:

• Rate the game on Google Play – 500 Coins
• Share about the Game on Facebook – 500 Coins
• Tweet about the Game on Twitter – 500 Coins
• Like Jetpack Jinx on Facebook – 500 Coins
• Follow Jetpack Jinx on Twitter – 500 Coins

The upgrades aren’t required as such to progress in the game but they are a path to getting through a bit quicker.

Jetpack Jinx appears to be an iOS port – you can see that the in-game buttons and the menu show a style more suited to iOS devices than an Android app, but I think this is OK as long as all the information is there on-screen and you can navigate the menus. Once you’ve loaded the game, there is nothing to detract from the free flowing, addictive, easy playing nature of the game.

Overall, Jetpack Jinx is one of those games that keeps you hooked in and refuses to let you leave. It seems so easy in concept but from my playing this game for a couple of weeks now I can’t seem to beat it that easily. Being able to physically control your phone is the key to getting higher scores, and with the Nexus 4 I seemed to be zooming all over the place whilst on the Huawei Y201 I seemed to get a bit better at control. The game is addictive, and worth your time to download. If you like it, buy a coin pack and support the developer – the upgrades you can get certainly add a bit of fun to the game.

Jetpack Jinx Trailer :