Halfbrick, perhaps best know for their game Fruit Ninja, has released another great game for iOS: Jetpack Joyride.
This game has incredibly simple gameplay. Your character is always running forward through what appears to be some sort of lab (this is not explained) full of scientists running around, flaming bars in the sky, missiles coming at you and various other obstacles. To activate the jetpack, which is necessary to avoid the obstacles and collect coins, you just tap anywhere on the screen. The longer you press, the more your jetpack fires. That’s all there is to getting started, so it is extremely fun to play right from the start.
To make it more interesting, there are a a variety of other vehicles that you can grab and control along the way, such as a robot dragon and a motorcycle. There are also mini-missions to accomplish in order to level-up. My favorite was having to high-five ten of the scientists as you run by them (try not to burn them up with your jetpack when you are trying to do so!).
Halfbrick also seems like a really fun company, something we know all about here at Small Dog. For example, their bio of one of their game producers includes the line: “Good instincts and natural talent help Luke lead his team to victory, poor dress sense gets him turned away from staff Christmas parties.