Right off the bat, I’m not sure this game will have the same “lightning in a bottle” popularity the original did. It’s a massive sequel that adds new features, customization options, different levels, and lots of community based integration. It’s much more of a traditional game now, and extremely polished as far as art goes. I love it, but it definitely has a different feel, or rhythm, than the original, and it might throw a lot of people off.
You can unlock and purchase new bodies, horns, manes, trails, and even add wings to your unicorn, letting it pull a Twilight Sparkle and go full on Alicorn! Horns affect the length of your dashes, while higher level manes allow you to jump additional times before having to land. Wings let you fly after reaching top speeds, which you can reach quicker with better bodies and trails. This is how hoops become a challenging new way to rack up score. What I like is that certain horns or flight speeds will work better in different level layouts, letting you feel more freedom in customization. All of these wondrous unicorn parts are purchased with crystal tears that you collect while playing, and earn by completing mission objectives.
Not only do you rank up in a traditional Jetpack Joyride style mission system, but you also earn plenty of tears through daily community challenges, and from winning the big Team Inferno vs. Team Rainbow challenges. You can use tears to purchase single use boosts of all kinds before going into a run too. I like these aspects, but feel the Inferno/Rainbow idea was poorly executed. Team Rainbow literally never wins, and once you’ve chosen a team, it costs a great amount of tears to be a traitor and switch over. I kind of wish you were auto-assigned to a team to keep them even, and keep some kind of competition going.
The new visuals are crisp and wonderful. The background of both the main world, and the ice world which you unlock at level fifteen, are full of amazing cosmic sights and great beasts, including a Nar-Whale. A giant flying whale with a laser horn! The new music is pretty good too. Sadly, to keep the game free, licensed music had to be left to IAP, but for one dollar you can live in harmony, harmony, oh love all over again! The other Robot Unicorn Attack songs appear, plus a few new options as well. The game is pretty buggy on certain devices, though it’s only slow on my iPhone 4, and doesn’t suffer crashes. It took a minute to grow on me, but this is a magical sequel with very few missteps. It changes just enough to feel like a proper new game, and not just another re-skin. Also, as I mentioned, it’s totally free, so jump on it already! In the name of make believe!
