There’s an ever-increasing list of really small, but fun games in the Play Store. Some of them are interesting, and some, unfortunately, are not. Fortunately, Cave Jumpers fall into the first category, thanks to a simple but interesting gameplay that combines several elements to make one really fun experience. However, the replay value aspect of the game is almost absent.
Developer: Oneironautics
Price: Free
Overview
Avoid the spikes and get the fuel containers and you’ll be fine.
Since there is no Google Play Games integration, there’s no setup needed. You can start playing as soon as the main screen appears. You’ll control a green blob and your mission is to climb as high as you can. For this, the main character is equipped with a jetpack, and you can control its activation by tapping the screen.
Your job is to travel through the cave as long as possible. Your character only moves sideways, so in order to progress, you have to fly upwards with said jetpack.
However, there are spikes along the cave walls, and touching them will immediately kill you. You can also die by refusing to fly and just letting your character drop way too low.
The jetpack has a limited amount on gas though, so you also have to collect fuel containers to refuel it. Run out of it, an it’s game over. The containers fly upward too, so it’s tricky to get them sometimes because you have to propel your character very high in the viewport, risking finding a spike just a moment after and being unable to do something about it.
Each second you play and don’t die will yield coins. This coins can be used for buying new characters, which are basically similar versions of the character you start with. I didn’t notice any difference in the way the game behaved when using a different character.
You can also change the fuel containers’ shape into very interesting stuff, such as a banana, a heart and a glass of beer.
You can also upload your highest score to a global leaderboard (if you are proud of it). The game will prompt you for a nickname, and after that, your name will be written for eternity on it. Congrats to “sieeet tak zjebac” who, at the time of writing, has the highest score worldwide, with 127 points.
General Impressions
You can unlock new characters, share your prowesses on Facebook or start a new game.
I thought that this would be another run-of-the-mill endless game, but actually the game’s different elements combined make for a very fun game in short periods of time. Timing your moves to avoid the random spikes while having to pay attention to the fuel indicator is more entertaining than it sounds.
The problem with this game, as with almost all endless games, is that it has little replay value. The game tries to increase replayability by offering different characters and fuel containers, but since they all behave the same, there’s almost no point in collecting them.
Graphics
All of the sprites in ths game try to convey a feeling of cartoony paper elements painted with crayons. Be it the main character, the fuel containers you have to pick, or other supporting art (like the settings button and the font), they all follow the same theme. I must say that it does a good job at that. You will definitely not find anything fancy or ground-breaking, but it’s good to have some cohesion between different elements.
Sound
The game features no background music. The only sounds that the game will produce are when you tap the screen to propel your character, when you get the fuel containers, or when you die. Just as the graphics, they’re nothing special, and the one fired when propelling gets a bit annoying after a while. I feel like they’re there for the sake of having sound, but they don’t do a good job in adding some real value to the game.
Options
There are very few options to choose from.
There are only three options in the game, and two of them are toggles: one is for the sounds and the other for controlling if the game will give you hints. In a really weird UI decision, these toggles can be acted upon by touching the label, and not the checkmark.
The other option lets you reset all of the game’s data. This probably acts the same as going to the Settings screen and erase the data through Android. I can’t understand why would someone want to delete the little progress you can make in this game, but there it is anyways.
One thing to note: there is no Google Play Games integraton. The option to submit high scores uses the developer’s own integraton, not its Google counterpart.
Conclusion
Cave Jumpers combine a couple of different elements to make a fun little game that can get very entertaining. However, since the game has so little elements to keep you coming back for more, it’s hard to recommend if you’re looking for a game to play in the long term. If you want to play in short bursts, though, then this game is a good time-killer.
Download Cave Jumpers from the Google Play Store.