What do you get when you cross Super Mario Bros. with a Mexican jumping bean? Bean’s Quest is what you get, yo. Which is totally awesome, both as an idea and in execution.
Bean’s Quest, developed by Kumobius, is a pretty normal-looking platformer, but it’s got a twist. Our protagonist, Emilio the jumping bean, is constantly jumping. He starts jumping as soon as a level begins, and as soon as he lands, more jumping immediately ensues. He’s a jumping machine.
Taking the jump button out of the equation, the controls are as simple as can be. There’s a button for moving left and a button for moving right. That’s about it. As easy as that sounds, the difficulty really ramps up as you progress.
There are bouncy objects (that make you even more bouncy than usual), moving platforms, disappearing platforms…and all the while you’re busy trying to collect a variety of colorful shapes.
One smart decision the game’s creators made was to give the bean unlimited lives, removing much of the stress from the game and making the experience far more pleasant in the bite-sized portions in which most people take mobile games. It also features mid-level checkpoints, which is quite nice.
For now, Bean’s Quest only has eight levels, but the developers promise that more are on the way. Yeah, it’s not very long right now, but it’s sooooooooo good that I don’t even care. I’ve been going back and replaying levels, trying to collect everything there is to collect — that’s how good this game is.
In all, Bean’s Quest is as delightful an experience as you can get on your iPad. It’s well worth $2.99, for sure, even if it’s short right now.
Download the free Appolicious iPhone app
