WOW, it's an amazing game! I actually like it MUCH better than Soosiz. It's been a while since I've been this addicted.
Hook Champ is one of my favourites on the iPhone so far. I gotta admit there's a special place in my heart for physics climbing games (ninja rope in Worms, Sway, Shadow of the Colossus) Conceptually I love the visuals and while the execution isn't quite at the same level it hits all the major landmarks: good proportions, pleasant colors, decent animation and above all else it looks very clear which is important for this type of fast paced game. And of course the main item aka rope is beautifully done! Money collection and the shopping is another big part of the experience and I think the pixelated retro style allowed the developers to do much more items for the shop. All in all there's a great deal of polish in the game that adds to the overall enjoyment: Gameplay tips neatly hidden into the dialogue as the level is about to begin (it has about 3-4 different sets of dialogue for each level, so if you die once next time you might see a tip which helps you complete the level), player carrying each stolen idol in his hand, when swinging past lava the character almost burns, when he's going very fast you see motion trail etc. The level ending scene where the girl reels Jake out of the cave is an instant classic, it reminded me of Mario jumping on the flag pole but even better! Best Regards, Timo
Overall great game with a lot of polish. I'm a huge fan of the retro style graphics and music. Games with swing type mechanics are always a lot of fun too. I'm sure this will build a lot of community around the best strategies to beat the high scores. The humor is great too. Very impressive, definitely no brainer purchase at $0.99.
I've never seen those bugs. We'll look into them. There will be more hats, I promise. I was worried about the difficulty, but complaints have been rare so far. The game starts out pretty easy but gets harder at around late frog and bull. Beating frog and bull gives you the ending and unlocks the Challenge Levels, though, so they should be somewhat difficult. Toucharcade (forum) Exclusive: We're going to give Jake a new item that gives him a mulligan for lava, as magma is what gives people the most trouble. With the item, instead of dying when you sink too far into lava, you'll explode out of it safely one time. 6 level sets, 4 levels each, so 24 levels. Each content pack will add another 4 levels. First content pack is about to hit beta testing. All levels are also very replayable (secrets, additional secrets once you buy new equipment, local and global highscore board for each level, *tangible* rewards for getting #1 spots). The pixellated style, besides being an aesthetic choice, also reduces the loading times to nothing. On my 2G iPod Touch I believe there's one loading period, only, and it lasts about a second, if that. Thanks for the bizarrely unanimous positive feedback, Toucharcade forums!
BTW, is your artist from Pixel Joint? I remember browsing through someone's gallery a few weeks ago, and saw a few tile samples that reminded me of this game. Just curious -- I'd like to see some more work from your artist if they have a gallery
I'm not sure if he's on these forums, but hats off to Maestro, who, according to the leaderboards, is the first person to beat the Golden Skull level! I do like this idea and we'll probably see if we can work it in quickly.
rocketcat games are now one of my favourite devs. Can't wait for updates or incoming projects, as long as they stick to the good points of this: -nice graphics -flawless controls -ACTUALLY AMAZING shop system -funny -and more
I'll get him to come to these forums. He hasn't been on Pixel Joint because this isn't his usual art style. The rope controls are set to 45 degrees for a Bionic Commando feel to the swinging. We did it this way because, once you get a feel for it, it's much easier to swing at high speeds with this method. We tried precision-accuracy for the controls in alpha, and it just didn't feel too great. We could make things easier in updates, but I don't think it's going to be by introducing a rope-n-fly control mechanic.
*cough* *cough* generally i'm just reading threads but being the first to beat the last lvl is reason enough to post here ; ) Bought the Game last night and got hooked pretty fast. Would really like to see Statistics in one of the next Updates, it took me at least 70 trys to beat the last lvl
Congrats! Though as I recall it's possible to get a way higher score in that last level. Better get back to work! Statistics is something we wanted to put it that we just didn't have time to. We'll do that if the underlying framework supports it ok. If not, our next game will literally have pages of statistics anyway.
It turned out to be an easy change, so the Global Scores panel should now show the most recently used hat of each person on the list, regardless of what hat they were wearing at the time of placing that score. In other words, all your global scores will change whenever you change your hat (and play one more level, win or lose)!
Don't forget the new hat in the shop for beating the Golden Skull.. and this one only costs one coin.
