Here’s something new; Just 1 Level is very much a concept game that puts you in the same scenario in each of its levels, but changes the gameplay mechanics up each time. The basic idea is to rescue the princess who is trapped inside a cell; as her pet dragon Dennis, you must free her simply by opening the wooden door via pressing the large red button, then going up to her at which point the game will congratulate you and move you on to the next challenge.

Each new level is a surprise, but it is often ruined by the level description. Surely the whole fun of the game is in figuring out what the developer did to bend the rules; may it be with hidden traps, gravity or control scheme changes. Having a clue visible in the bottom right corner just spoils the fun somewhat.

Depending on the level, the controls can be great (finger taps or swipes) or they can be confusing and sluggish (accelerometer). We’re firm believers in not basing a game’s difficulty on its control scheme, so this is where the game falls apart a little. If the controls were intuitive then it would be too easy, so the developer had to go the other way; after all, they found sixty different possibilities for controls and other elements out of one scenario! Therefore, the game itself becomes repetitive and certainly not very replayable.

In all, the idea in theory is a good one but there’s too much of the same game here. Games thrive when there’s a variety of different gameplay elements or when there’s a few gameplay elements that are done extremely well and Just 1 Level has neither. Whilst it has a decent set of graphics including a higher resolution set for the iPhone 4, the gameplay is what counts here; we can see some of these challenges pop up in a mini-game collection but it doesn’t work so well as a standalone game.

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