With simple roots as a mere prototype produced at the overnight 360iDev Game Jam, Imangi Studios’ latest game Hippo High Dive [App Store] was released this evening. While the core gameplay concept has remained the same, nearly everything else has been significantly spruced up, improved, or otherwise tweaked.
As the title of the game may imply, you play as a hippo, and you jump off a high dive– hopefully landing in a small pool of water below. Of course it’s not that easy, between you and the pool are a series of flaming hoops that you need to navigate your plump posterior through on the way down by tilting your iPhone. Miss a ring and you lose a life, also if you hit the edge of a flaming ring (and get burnt) twice you will lose a life. Thanks to the surprisingly resilient skin of your average hippopotamus, you have three lives to reach the bottom.
With every high dive you successfully complete, the diving board moves higher and you fall faster. The levels themselves are randomly generated and have no height limit, although the online leaderboards are currently topping out at 1150m for first place. Other statistics tracked globally include the highest perfect dive, the number of total dives, how many hoops have been extinguished, along with how many times players have been singed by the hoops.
The addition of Imangi’s detailed online stat and score tracking enhances the game and if you’re in to competitive leaderboards, Hippo High Dive is ready for some sky high scores to knock the beta testers off the top positions on the charts. While Hippo High Dive may lack the depth of Imangi’s other titles, sometimes the simplest games are the ones that get the most play time on my phone.
App Store Link: Hippo High Dive, 99¢
