Bikini Jump
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| Bikini Jump

Bikini Jump, if we were to judge from a basic description alone, might appear to be something of a violence-against-women simulator. You see, what you basically have to do is to bounce a bikini-wearing woman down a sand dune, being careful not to smack her head on the side too much, lest her skull rupture fatally before you've managed some 'great air'.

To top it off, once you've bounced her into oblivion, as is the sad fate of each of these beauties, her bikini is inexplicably launched off her body mortar-style in her final gasps to score you a few extra metres of distance.

Before you hit the back button of your browser in disgust, Bikini Jump is a lot more well-meaning in practice than this description suggests. Like Digital Chocolate's other 'Bikini' games, it's barely an adult title at all, with immensely bright and cartoonish visuals and no nudity beyond the bikinis of the title.

The controls are the very definition of 'one-thumb'. You hold '5' to counteract the natural clockwise spin of your bikini jumper in order to set her at the perfect angle as she connects with the sand. Leaving her to spin clockwise will increase your distance though, so it's not just a case of keeping her forever in a moderately angled-forward position.

The positions act much as you may expect. Land bolt upright and you'll go straight up, lean backwards and you'll go backwards. If you land head first, you'll deplete the character's stamina. Run out of stamina and it's game over and off with that rocket-propelled bikini all over again.

Achieving certain milestones in a jump will unlock new features, such as new ladies to bounce down the dunes. Milestones include things like bouncing 1000m in a single go, or completing a whole jump without hitting the lady in question's head once. Unlocked characters may have more advanced spinning, stamina or bikini-launch-off skills (and what a skill to have) meaning that using these characters will naturally lead to completing more advanced objectives, in turn unlocking new characters in a pleasing circle of award.

It does need this unlocking dynamic though, because there's only actually a single level to bounce down, even if it does have its own fair share of different areas within it. This is in contrast to last year's similar parent title, Kamikaze Robots, which featured 29 different 'tracks' to complete. Even if this is a quick dip-in dip-out title, forever egging you on to beat your scores rather than complete a drawn-out story mode, we can't help but long for a bit of longevity-increasing structure, even if it was just in the shape of a side mode.

Nevertheless, in spite of this and our deliberately misplaced allegations of misogyny, Bikini Jump is an undeniably fun little title that serves up a good casual experience. Just don't try to repeat what you see in the game in real life, or Bikini Jump may well end up as the next Manhunt 2.

Bikini Jump

A fun five-minutes-a-time game that makes for a pleasantly adult-tinged version of its forefather, Kamikaze Robots
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