Powerbocking is the act of jumping and running with elastic-like spring-loaded stilts. For some it is an extreme sport, for others it is a form of exercise or even a means of artistic expression. The use of the stilts to perform extreme jumping, running and acrobatics is known as “Bocking” or “PowerBocking” after the inventor.

Wikipedia

We’d never have heard of the sport if Digital Worlds hadn’t asked us to review Jump-O-Mania 3D. Indeed, the best way to talk about the game is to have the application up and running, showing people how it works. It’s something most people can pick up and play with ease, demonstrating the publisher’s grasp of designing mobile content.

Playing along on a fixed plane, initial levels are randomly generated, although certain fixtures like stairs and elevated terrain come in a predictable fashion. Later on and the levels instead follow a more rigid form which does a lot to ease the annoyance of random level generation. Often, random levels add too many obstacles in sequence so you’re falling over them instead of being able to trick in and out of them; whereas a fixed format encourages learning the course so you get the most out of it. Indeed there are parts that have overhead areas as well as the ground floor.

To get the most out of a level, it’s advisable that you trick in and out of every obstacle that you can. Simply holding and releasing the stunt button on the left at the right time will add more points to your score. The jump button on the right is useful for making quick jumps to get to a higher place on the terrain, or simply getting on top of a larger obstacle such as a car. Chaining jumps has the added advantage of giving you a multiplier so that your next trick is worth more points. In the end we chose not to take advantage of this as combos would often become disrupted just by the placement of obstacles.

With its two button control scheme it’s rather easy to get into, especially as all the stunts are simple and randomly chosen. You can get into the swing of things without much effort, although the accelerometer controlled jump distance can be a little tricky to adapt to. Not using this feature didn’t seem to negatively affect completing the game.

The main game mode can lead to frustration that you’re falling over all the time. There are perhaps two reasons for this; one is learning the controls and the game environments along with the variety of obstacles they bring. The other is a lack of a concrete goal. It isn’t at all clear that you have to get a certain score on each level - we found that around 20,000 points seemed to be the magic figure that would let us progress on. Even so, it would be nice to come up with a better system that didn’t keep booting you out of the game if you fell over. A simpler way would be to show a target score for the level.

The 3D, whilst not the best that we’ve seen thus far on the platform works from a gameplay standpoint. Each level has a unique set of obstacles that are rendered well, with background detail strong on the latter half of the four levels that come with the game. We’re glad that iPod music is supported as the soundtrack to the game is a series of upbeat tracks that don’t create an air of an extreme sport. Stick on a playlist that has music from skateboarding games and you’ll feel like the title has much more to offer—Blur’s Song 2 from the trailer isn’t in the game, much to our disappointment.

Jump-O-Mania 3D has all we can want from a powerbocking game, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfection. We can hope for more courses that go with the fixed path style rather than levels generated on the fly. As it stands it is a good game that will hold your interest—once you’ve invested some time into the game to learn the intricacies of the different environments.

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