AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! (Force = Mass x Acceleration) (henceforth known as “the game,” because seriously…) is a spin-off of an award-winning PC game that welcomes you to the future… a future Boston, Massachusetts, that is, where the sport of B.A.S.E. jumping is now illegal and participating is just another way you can stick it to the man. Awesome… or is that supposed to be gnarly? It’s been a while.
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! (Force = Mass x Acceleration) (henceforth known as “the game,” because seriously…) is a spin-off of an award-winning PC game that welcomes you to the future… a future Boston, Massachusetts, that is, where the sport of B.A.S.E. jumping is now illegal and participating is just another way you can stick it to the man. Awesome… or is that supposed to be gnarly? It’s been a while.
In any case, this being the future and all, architecture is taken to its most logical (?) extreme, with buildings and structures floating well over the surface of the planet. As a result, B.A.S.E. jumping is also taken to its utmost, as you leap from points which seem to be at the verge of where the atmosphere meets space, and allow gravity to do its thing. As you fall, you steer with the iPhone’s gyroscope to score points by falling through colored zones while avoiding rooftops and other structures. Failure to survive isn’t all bad, though, as your demise at least warrants one of several different amusing (if occasionally disgusting) descriptors and declarations regarding the new state of your body– “your femurs are now femur paste!” and “Medical Insurance ahoy!” among them.
Along the way to terra firma, you have the opportunity to perform tricks to add to your score. The most basic among these is just a matter of where you fall: moving around objects can earn you “kisses,” while staying close (but not TOO close) to the side of a building will net you “hugs.” You can purchase more as you earn “teeth,” the in-game currency which unlocks items/moves and more stages. In the case of the glow-in-the-dark glove, you’ll be able to give your cheering fans a thumbs-up on the way down, while protestors get flipped off (a sort of reverse peace sign, rather than the bird– sort of ironic, that). Another allows you to spray-paint government buildings on the way down, because so long as you’re already breaking the law, why not?
As noted, the game uses tilt controls for steering as you do your best (or worst) Wile E. Coyote impression. The iTunes copy says that these are “the most amazing tilt controls you’ve ever felt in your entire life!”, and while we wouldn’t go quite that far, they do work rather well once you get used to them (which probably won’t be until you’ve gotten a few of those messages we mentioned before). There are only two real issues we have with this, though both are relatively minor.
One is that you are pretty much required to keep the iPhone face-up to play, which means you probably aren’t going to get very far if you’re trying to relax in bed or something. At the same time, that seems in keeping with the game’s “extreme” nature, so it makes sense. The other is that something seems to be a little bit off in the tilt controls; placing the iPhone on a flat surface and just letting gravity do its thing caused it to veer in the direction of the bottom of the screen. It isn’t a major problem as one can compensate for it, but it still seems worth noting that holding the phone flat doesn’t quite give you a straight descent.
If you’re into extreme sports, or extreme versions of extreme sports (it almost seems to B.A.S.E. jumping what Mirror’s Edge is to parkour), then you should have plenty of fun playing this game. It’s fun, plays well, and has quite a few (read: 47) levels to play through as you try to get the best score you can, and then beat that.
