A colorful game developed by Gamesmith, Joyland Bounce has you collecting stars as you try to navigate through the challenging twists and turns of the game’s many stages. Apparently, the moon and stars have fallen from the sky, and it’s up to you to round them all up. Sound easy? Well, you character is a small orange ball who bounces off everything. So guiding him can be a bit of a challenge.
You tilt your iPhone or iPod touch left or right to gently guide the orange ball and hold your finger on the screen to make him float upwards. You can’t progress to the next level until you’ve collected every star.
There are 35 levels in Joyland Bounce spread across seven worlds, each with distinct landscapes—forests, canyons, ruins, underwater, ice and Hell. The different landscapes are beautifully rendered and contain some interesting animations like flying butterflies or blinking snails. The music is really cheerful, and the sound of the orange ball bouncing off plants and walls is entertaining.
Joyland Bounce is a very simple game; personally, I got bored with it pretty quickly. Still, for younger players, guiding an orange ball through narrow pathways to collect stars could prove to be fun. I would suggest trying the free lite version (restricted to just three levels) before dropping a buck on it.
Joyland Bounce is compatible with any iPhone or iPod touch running the iPhone 2.2.1 software update.
[Tim Mercer is a technology enthusiast, graphic designer, and blogger, whose blog, digital-artist-toolbox.com, offers free resources to the digital artist and graphic designer.]