The Impossible Game (iPhone)
iPhone integration (About)
- Save state: No
- iPod music: No
- Status bar: No
- Version: 1.0
- Price as reviewed: 59p
- by FlukeDude
There’s a fine line between a challenge and a frustration, and The Impossible Game comes close to crossing it. Luckily it follows the path of the former and generates some dangerously addictive gameplay. The aim is very simple: you must guide an orange square through a level full of geometric obstacles and, just like in Canabalt, you can only determine when the square jumps. A solitary tap performs a single bound, while holding your finger on the screen produces a series of hops which allows you to easily jump over objects that appear in a consistent pattern.
There are only really three obstacles in the game; triangles, squares and thick black lines. The triangles and lines are lethal if you touch them, whereas the squares can be bounced on, just not run into. This propels the game into the sky, as you can see in our gameplay video below:
Unsurprisingly, The Impossible Game is very harsh since each time you die you are sent right back to the start of the course. The only way to beat the game is to memorise the level, which is actually possible since it’s static and you are given a few head starts. For one there is a practice mode where you can place flags to mark your re-spawn point as you progress. And while this makes the mode easy to complete, it does help to get to grips with the gameplay. The Impossible Game also has an outstanding soundtrack that does more than just satisfy audiophiles: the beats in the music loosely mimic the required jumps so it’s a clever and unique aid.
We love the straight forward gameplay and simple graphics that The Impossible Game sports. The black obstacles on the blue background may look basic, but they have a serene quality to them and keep the game running at 60fps. Yes, the game is ultra-smooth with quick loading times and only your reaction speed can mess up a jump. The one problem we did have with the game is its short life span: there is just one level which is very possible to complete. We’d definitely appreciate more levels, but nevertheless it’s worth the 59p since we can almost guarantee that you’ll keep playing The Impossible Game until you complete it.
Grade: B, Great
The Impossible Game is addictive, challenging and richly featured, despite the single level.
