Jetpack Joyride soars on the wings of micropayments

Posted by on January 10, 2012 in Reviews

Every game of Jetpack Joyride opens in a room with a gramophone playing a languid holiday ditty. A jetpack sits on a table with a sign next to it that reads “DO NOT STEAL”. Some scientists shuffle around. At the other end of the room, another sign notes your high score as a measure of your best distance.

After the jump, all this changes when you touch anywhere to start

Every game of Jetpack Joyride begins with your little dude — you’ll come to discover either that his name is Barry or someone who made this game like writing the name Barry in floating coins — blowing through a wall, violating the “DO NOT STEAL” sign, and then trying to violate the second sign by setting a higher score, which involves how far you can fly the jetpack. The languid gramophone ditty is promptly replaced by raucous action music, and you’re off. This might be one of the most perfectly named videogames ever invented.

The only controls are touching the screen to fire the jetpack and ascend. Otherwise, you constantly move to the right, controlling your altitude with the jetpack to dodge laser walls and missiles. Wipe out and your run is over. Each time you play, the obstacles, collectibles, power-ups, and so forth are randomly placed.

It’s the simplicity and charm of Tiny Wings, but with more game crammed around the edges. Slot machine tokens, coins, power-ups that put you into different vehicles, that sort of thing. The most effective gimmick is the mission system. Even though you’re essentially playing the same game every time, you always have three random missions lined up. These are things like “reach a certain distance”, “collect a certain number of coins”, or maybe “high-five a certain number of the little scientists”. Do enough missions and you level up and earn a lump sum of coins. My favorite mission so far has been to travel 300 meters while rubbing my head on the ceiling. Basically, I just kept firing the jetpack so Barry bumped against the top of the screen. But the fact that the developers expressed this as “rubbing my head on the ceiling” shows just how playful everything feels.

That playfulness and simplicity is why I would happily grind my way through this game’s economy for a top hat for Barry, or a jetpack that spits out rainbows, or a zombie mask. But Jetpack Joyride isn’t tuned for that. Jetpack Joyride really wants me to microbuy these things. It would take way too much grinding to buy many of these cute little cosmetic bits, which means they really aren’t a viable goal given the simplicity of the gameplay. Instead, they’re a part of the business model, which therefore robs Jetpack Joyride of a fair amount of its appeal. I don’t want to buy top hats, rainbow jetpacks, or zombie masks. I want to play for them.

That leaves the competitive element of working my way up the leaderboards for the greatest distance among my friends. But I’m not really keen on trying to set a record distance when anyone can pay for a head start (15 cents), a free push for bonus distance after he’s died (20 cents), and an extra life (50 cents). Again, I don’t want to buy a high score. I want to play it.

It all comes down to the fact that I would rather pay for a carefully tuned game than get a financially optimized one for free. But I guess if a developer’s going to screw up the equation, they might as well do it with a game as good as Jetpack Joyride.

4 stars
iOS

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-McMaster/607680289 Jason McMaster

    Having seen some of the absolute worst micropayment apps, Jetpack Joyride is a total pleasure. It’s really non-intrusive compared to, oh, any Game Loft game. Ever.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-McMaster/607680289 Jason McMaster

    Oh, also, I beat your high score.

  • Tony M

    I love how this short sentence trumps Toms entire post.  I also love the sign “DO NOT STEAL”.

  • Anonymous

    Compared to many current iOS releases–some if which cost more than $5–Jetpack Joyride is tuned for gameplay, not micro payments. Well, as long as you’re not interested in the cosmetic stuff. You can get most (all?) of the perks through the slot machine, and it didn’t feel too grindy playing enough to get through all the missions once. Batman and Dark Meadow, however, felt impossible or overlong, respectively, to advance without ponying up.

  • http://www.facebook.com/arixey Adam Rixey

    See, I view all those collectibles as rewards, and especially now that they’ve made the missions system more challenging this is a game I keep playing.  I’ve gotten all the jetpacks, and all but two or three of the outfits….without ever dropping anything beyond the initial purchase price.  This is my most replayed game of 2011, and I still fire off a few rounds each night before bed.

    The developers have also been good about free periodic content updates (the dragon, more environments, more costumes, etc).

  • Marc Taro

    As an inveterate min maxer the first thing I noticed were the coin magnet mods. Use your honestly earned coins for these – and you will never worry for money again. There is no reason to ever buy gold in this game after that :)

  • broguewave

    This human speaks the truth

  • Anonymous

    Marc, I’ve actually upgraded all the vehicles with gold magnets, except for the teleporter, since I can’t figure out how that stupid thing is supposed to work anyway.  It still feels to me like the time required to grind is completely out of proportion with the gameplay variety and the level of reward.

    Adam, if you’re playing daily, I can understand how that might result in a steady trickle of unlockables over time.  But I simply don’t see this as enough game to justify a daily habit.  Not to say that I don’t like it, of course.  I’m just keenly aware that it’s tuned for micropayments instead of gameplay. 

  • Nixxter

    Thank you for pointing that out to oblivious me Marc!  Now, I can get those, and sit my grandson down as a form of child labor …. hmmm.

  • BleedTheFreak

    I disagree – I’ve unlocked nearly every jetpack, all the magnet upgrades and one gold dragon, and several outfits all while not spending a dime.  My highest score is 3994, which I felt was pretty good, without spending anything (even in-game coins) on headstarts (which I hate anyway, I need that initial “feel” to get acclimated, otherwise you get shoved into a fast paced 750m gameplay), or any other powerups.

    I’m working towards my third medal, I’m one mission away from it, and I’ll be level 46 then and going for my 4th play through, with still more coins to earn and still more things to unlock.  If you are enjoying the gameplay, and you have fun with the missions (which you clearly do), you can just have fun without spending anything.

    In fact, I’m sure if I just bought coins, I’d be done with the game, which would bum me out.  It’s my favorite time killer so far,I’d hate to lose that.