PapiJump Plus
One of the iPhone's best games receives a cool upgrade.
PapiJump is an addictive and free iPhone app that challenges you to bounce a red ball named Mr. Papi to platforms by physically tilting the device. Although it's great for a quick fix, its lack of depth resulted in us shelving the game shortly after its release. Now there's PapiJump Plus, a .99 upgrade with new modes and graphics. If you loved the original or need a great app to take on a trip, go ahead and cough up that dollar.
This version is essentially an ultimate edition. Not only does it contain the original game with Normal, Hard and Fall (the platforms disappear after you touch them) levels of difficulty, but also five unique modes that alter the game's formula.
"Touch" challenges you to control Mr. Papi by pressing the touch screen, the goal to guide it by pointing where you want him to go. "Right" forces you to play horizontally, as you bounce him to the right side of the screen. "Move" works in similar fashion to the basic game, except the platforms slide back and forth. "Down" reverses things by sending Mr. Papi down instead of up, and finally, "Enemy" throws some baddies onto the playfield, and you can blast them with fireballs by tapping the touch screen. You eventually run out of ammo, and you'll need to replenish it by picking up hamburgers, Mr. Papi's favorite food.
Another sweet addition is the ability to change background colors, though we noticed one instance where doing so caused the screen the shake erratically, and that's not the only issue. While playing Enemy, we noticed the game bogged down just a bit when too many characters appeared. We're talking three max, so it's disappointing that publisher Sunflat couldn't make it run smoother.
In addition, and like all the Mr. Papi apps, you can't upload high scores to an in game leaderboard. Instead, you have to exit the game and jump into Safari to do so. Most times, leaving the game causes us to lose interest in restarting.
These problems notwithstanding, PapiJump Plus is still a fun app and one of the iPhone's best. The myriad of options as well as the "just one more try" factor elevate it beyond most of its competition, and for .99, you have no reason to avoid it.
What's Hot: Same addictive bouncing action, eight different ways to play, you can change the backgrounds.
What's Not: Altering those backgrounds sometimes makes the game freak out, you still cannot post scores to in game leaderboards, moves a bit sluggish during the Enemy game.
4/5