TapCritic – Honest iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch App Reviews

Why is it that the gear heads, computer junkies and cutting edge programmers are also those most likely to eat up any form of retro tech that gets tossed our way?

Oh yeah…we’re geeks.

Well if you’re looking for your fix of throwback gaming nostalgia, look no farther; Jetman Jack is here.  

We’ve seen this game numerous times before, but I swear I never get tired of it.  I first encountered it as a flash helicopter game, and I played it for hours on end.  There is something compelling about the simplicity of gameplay that keeps me wasting time when I really shouldn’t.  

As Jetman Jack, your goal is simple…don’t die.  With a jet pack strapped to your back, you careen through arbitraty obstacles in what looks like some sort of annoyingly elaborate cave system.

What’s the story behind all this?  We don’t care.  It all comes back to the basic premise.  Don’t die.  And the longer you go without dying, the more points you rack up.

Controls really couldn’t get more simple.  If you touch anywhere on the screen, the jetman’s pack lights up and he begins to ascend.  The moment you let go, he starts falling, slowly at first and then faster and faster.

That’s it.  Control altitude.  Make judgement calls.  Don’t die.

It would have been easy to jazz this guy up with more elaborate obstacles or complicated gameplay or crazy backgrounds and environments, but I’m glad the guys at Axium kept it simple.  Without the throwback element, there would be no charm.

As I said, this game is not original.  At all.  But it’s well done with a fun color scheme, an old-school leader board, and a cheesily bad (on purpose) animation to kick things off.  For $0.99, you could do much worst.

Buy Jetman Jack HERE.

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