In Jump Ball Quest, you control a constantly bouncing ball trying to reach the end of the level. On touching the little red flag that signifies the end, you’re free to go.
The impediments to sweet freedom are the traditional puzzle game blockers; obscuring mazes and blocking… blocks that mean you need to jump around or above them.
The creativity of Jump Ball Quest is the manner in which you jump over obstacles. As you’re constantly jumping up and down, you can only control the moment you chose to move left or right. Couple that with the fact that you can only jump so high, you have to time your jumps to match the distance you desire to jump. This means you’ll find yourself perched on the end of a ledge like a sparrow, waiting for just the right moment to leap forward and grab that lovely star.[sc name=”quote” text=”These towers are supplemented by up to three heroes that can be exchanged with new heroes gained through even more playing.”]
True to mane mobile games of this type, there are three golden stars to collect to symbolize how well you’ve done the level. Many similar games only award stars based on some sort of inane criteria, so it is a great relief that Jump Ball Quest has the stars within immediate reaching distance, allowing you to see your progress and how well you’ve done on the level.
Occasionally, the stars or even the ultimate goal for the red flag will be behind a wall of spikes, requiring you to jump over them. To increase the difficulty as you go through levels however, there will be what can only be described as temporary blocks. If you jump on them even once, they disappear, meaning they only allow you to grab purchase enough to reach the next platform for one jump.
Oftentimes, you will need to time your jumps to ensure you finish a sequence of obstacles perfectly in one jump for each brick, so as to ensure you don’t plummet into the spikes below and pop with a deflated sound.
Whenever you die – usually to spikes or other pitfalls – the game instantly reverts you back to the beginning as if it never happened. That Jump Ball Quest chooses to not shame you for failing a section of the level, instead allowing you to replay it instantly with no penalty or punishment, means that Jump Ball Quest is in a league above other games.
No one likes being made to replay a levels a million times, but it’s even worse when you have a death counter over your head.[sc name=”quote” text=”These towers are supplemented by up to three heroes that can be exchanged with new heroes gained through even more playing.”]
Jump Ball Quest possesses a unique, cutesy ascetic, simple yet easily understandable game mechanics and an overall feeling of fairness to the player. The game wants you to succeed and enjoy yourself, so it does everything in its power to ensure you do.
Nothing unfair, nothing unfun and no wastes of time. If it weren’t for the relative lack of alternative design in levels, Jump Ball Quest would be pretty much the perfect example of a puzzle game.
[appbox googleplay com.mobirix.bounceballking1]
[appbox appstore id1254340775]
