Jetpack Joyride 1.91.1

Just when you thought human ingenuity has reached its peak, out comes something original. While advancing indefinitely through an infinite obstacle course is not original on its own, doing so propelled by a minigun is!

In Jetpack Joyride you will be once again guiding Barry Steakfries, the multi-skilled hero from the Halfbrick Games series (Fruit Ninja, Monster Dash). For some reason, Barry has blown open a wall into a highly-super-secret research laboratory and grabbed a jetpack of sorts, that's fitted with a machine gun instead of air jets. The point of the game is to go as far as you can while collecting coins and avoiding missiles and other nefarious obstacles.

While being a fairly easy business in the beginning, Barry will constantly pick up speed essentially making him harder to control, and putting your quick reflexes to the test. The controls are very simple. You simply tap & hold any area of the screen to make Barry activate his jump jet.

The laboratory is filled with scientists in hazmat suits that run around helpless only to be run down by the stream of bullets that propel you through the corridors. Pay no attention to them, since they are of no consequence and exist only for your sick pleasure of mowing them down with bullets (there's no graphic violence though). The real obstacles come in the form of laser barriers, homing missiles and flying zapper lasers.

Things get interesting when you encounter special vehicles. I can't exactly call them power-ups since they don't power up anything. Each outfit changes the gameplay mechanism for a short while. For example, riding a mechanical bird will require you to tap consistently in order to flap its wings. The teleportation device will advance at the same altitude and will constantly show a 'ghost' position to which you can phase by tapping. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, but you may upgrade each of them to attract coins. Coins can also be used on other useful things such as gadgets. Barry can equip up to two gadgets before a run. These give you real advantages such as faster jumps, quicker drops, longer falls, missile jammers and others. These are grouped into tiers which become available sequentially once you buy two of the three gadgets from the current tier. This forces you to buy and try most of them and keeps variety in this otherwise samey gameplay.

There are a ton of other upgrades, but most are actually for looks and do not affect gameplay in any way.

Jetpack Joyride has a somewhat laid back pace. It is quite fitted for a few minutes of play when you want to kill some time and don't have the disposition for solving a puzzle.