Hippo High Dive ($.99) follows the golden rule of casual gaming... keep it simple. The idea behind this little joy maker is to maneuver your big ass hippo (wearing a pink onesy), through flaming hoops of fire after jumping off a death-defying high dive. Make it through every hoop without being badly singed and then land your hippo in a waiting pool of water. It's that simple!
The real skill comes in by taking your Hippo up to ungodly heights in order to add significant challenge. When I spied the global stats I found the Highest Dives leader Zincous, completed 305 hoops from 3050 meters high. Which I find astonishing! There's even a Lifetime Times Singed score held by Garfu at 959, turning the charred losers into winners.
The charm of Hippo High Dive is a combination of simple but beautifully drawn graphics, an easily understandable game concept and of course circus music that makes each dive feel like a breathtaking show stopper. The use of lined note paper as the back-drop for the original art gives this game a familiar and organic feeling, which I prefer over slick images. I could easily see a cult of faithful iPhone hippo divers forming a user community around this game.
The developers should draw up a few more hippos with grand personalities and back stories, then allow their cult followers to name them and vote them into the game. Updates will allow the cast of characters to grow and give the community input into how the story develops. I'm casting my vote for Stanov, the muscular, womanizing Hippo from Russia who's captivated by his own good looks.
This little gem, created by Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova at Imangi Studios during an all-night coding marathon challenge, is an iPhone triumph that should make other game developers snap out of a coma and take notice. Several rounds of Hippo High Dive left me bloated with extreme happy gas, twitching to retry another epic dive.
I'm totally convinced it's just a matter of time before this chubby newcomer hits number one in the App Store. While Hippo High Dive may not hold the interest of hardcore micro-gamers, it should draw a fiercely loyal following of iPhone users who are addicted to an original idea that's pure fun to play. I feel tremendous man-love for this game. You can quote me on that!
Hey that's me :D
And I it 3,050 score now. 2,400 was my perfect dive though.
Posted by: Zincous | December 04, 2009 at 02:22 PM