Review: ABOVE

Overview

ABOVE is a new game that follows the casual endless mold like the original Papi Jump, and its super popular clone Doodle Jump. Your goal is to jump from platform to platform trying to go as high as you can. The game has a different mechanic where instead of the character jumping automatically you tap to jump, and can hold to charge the jump.

Features

The game features three environments in the metropolis, farm, and space with each ranging in difficulty from easy to hard. As you progress upward special platforms pop up including ones that increase your bounce, ones that drop out after landing upon, and ones that shift and rattle. High scores are local, and there are ten achievements.

The Good

ABOVE presents the simple fun of casual endless, and gives a whole new gameplay mechanic to change up the gameplay you've played before. It requires more action and thought when you actually have to tap for the jump. Then there is the charging mechanic to alter to strength of your jump to be able to make certain distances. The game is definitely fun as the character runs left and right automatically, and you charge to jump. This makes it a whole new experience that is much more challenging as you always need to look to jump upwards as your character will soon run off the platform it's on. The charging jump mechanic provides for a constantly adjusting strategy depending on the current predicament. The game is wonderfully designed with intricate moving backgrounds for each of the three environments. Then there is the 2.5D type perspective with the 3D platforms in the background, and flat backgrounds. There is just so much detail packed into every aspect of the game which is such a change to the usual for this genre. The game includes a different soundtrack for each of the environments which are nice to listen to. The three different environments add a little to the replay factor as each one gives you different platform layouts and difficulty. The controls work well as you can tap anywhere on screen to charge your jump. Ten local achievements are included for something to strive for, but only local high scores.

The Bad

The game is somewhat repetitive even with the three different environments. Granted there's more variability than Doodle Jump, but it falls short of the current best in the genre, Bird Strike. The one noticeable thing was that the platform generation didn't seem random, and rather was the same each time you played a certain environment. The game is high score based, but only local high scores are included. The game is fun, but just doesn't have the same intrinsic replay factor of similar games in the genre which is absolutely essential.

The Verdict

ABOVE is a fun and simple game that provides a whole new gameplay mechanic to the casual endless genre. It's much more engaging having to tap to jump, and then having the ability to charge your jump to go higher. The lack of online high scores is really detrimental to a high score based game, and it doesn't have the same replay factor as similar games. ABOVE is worth considering for $1.99 depending on how much you like the casual endless type game, and how many you already own.

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