The original Bungee Desperado passed us by here at Pocket Gamer Towers (on the end of a bungee rope, probably, flying past a window on the 30th floor), which is a shame as we've since discovered it's not a bad little game.
Its secret is simplicity. You launch your bandit off a cliff edge from the back of a donkey, and guide him left and right using the number pad or thumbstick as the screen scrolls down towards the ground. Pushing the thumbstick in or pressing '5' pulls on the bungee cord, if timed right, saves you from becoming a Mexican Fajita on the seriously hard floor below.
It's a bit like a vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up – without any shooting – where you're actively encouraged to hit obstacles. Lots. And you're obviously moving down instead of up.
Bungee Desperado 2 retains that simple game mechanic, but sees the titular hero in heaven. The change of scene is pretty much cosmetic, mind. Rock faces and ledges are now fluffy white clouds – a trivial change that makes colliding with stuff seem that little bit less fatal.
It all looks very colourful and cartoony. Graphically, for a 2D game, it's well above average, and everything on our phone zipped about the screen smoothly.
There are 11 levels in total, the first couple serving as a mini-tutorial. Each sets you a specific challenge. Completing the task, such as bashing into sufficient sleeping angels, reaching the bottom within a time limit, or collecting ten balloons, means you progress onto the next level.
The tasks aren't difficult. A couple we did on our first go: others were a tad harder, but not much. There are new additions such as clouds and power-ups, and these help you recover your health (essential, as you're constantly hitting stuff!), move faster, and cause more havoc in general.
Sounds heavenly, amigo? Well, not completely!
The game relies too much on trial and error rather than skill. You'll try a level, fail, retry, fail, and so on until you learn where everything has been placed. This then leads you, after a little swearing, to taking certain preferred routes through the levels to ensure success.
Once you've worked out the best route through a level, it's easily completed and you move onto the next one. Unfortunately there isn't a plethora of missions available, so once you've finished the game, and it won't take long, there's not really much pulling you back for more.
A multiplayer mode enables up to four players to compete, and that could add a little longevity to the proceedings, though high scores aren't saved in this mode as far as we can tell.
Overall, we were pleasantly surprised at how addictive the game was during its short lifetime. Because the levels only take around 30 seconds to a minute to attempt, there's little frustration in going back to the start and trying again, so it's perfect for short bursts of gaming on the go.
The central game mechanic of rushing downwards and hitting stuff is great fun, too, and it's not too hard to keep progressing.
Trouble is, this addictive quality only ensures the game's speedy completion. We would have liked about five times as many levels to really add some value. It's fun, but it's far too short, especially in single-player.
Bungee Desperado 2
Like Tom Cruise it's good looking and fun, but a little crazy and short
