I get a pretty big kick out of endless-climbing apps. I’ve probably spent more time playing Above than any other game on my iPhone. SuperRope offers an entirely different set of challenges from my favorite app, however, some for the better and others maybe not so much.
For starters, SuperRope doesn’t mess around. Even on the middle of three available difficulty settings, it’s incredibly easy to die in this game. Your character’s objective, to swing from vine to vine and slowly climb higher while looking out for falling pianos and dangerous enemies, and making sure to jump off each vines before it ends, is significantly more difficult than Above’s simple “Do not fall into a gap” goal.
That increased difficulty is a great thing for someone who really enjoys the challenge of an endless climbing game. In many of these games, you have to reach truly absurd heights before the difficulty crunch kicks in. In SuperRope, it starts almost immediately.
But that difficulty ties into a part of SuperRope that could use a little work — controls. Players can each tap the screen or swipe across the screen to get their character to jump from vine to vine, and while tapping doesn’t feel quite intuitive enough, the swiping has its own set of problems. Specifically, there are numerous times where a swipe doesn’t register. I’m not sure what can be done to tighten the controls, but they’re easily the most frustrating part of what is a very good game otherwise.
And SuperRope certainly has enough going for it. Even the way the game makes you earn new characters and levels by collecting “funky stars” that are strewn across each level is inventive. It certainly increases the app’s replay value, as you won’t have the entire game unlocked for you the first time you boot it up.
If you can get over the wonky controls, SuperRope is a blast to play. I’m not sure it’ll unseat my favorite climber, but it certainly has earned its way into my app game rotation.
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