Boom! app review: An addictive, fast, fun and competitive platformer

Introduction

Boom! by Happy Sprites has caught me completely by surprise. What starts out as a simple easy platform game slowly evolves into an intricate racing game with the most exhilarating loops, ramps and jumps and nail-bitingly frustrating trial and error gameplay. Add a clever online mode onto this and you’ve got one of the best free to play games on iOS as of yet.

Arcade mode – Learning the ropes

Pinky is in trouble. Cue the hero and main character of the game, conveniently called Boom!, as he and his monowheel vehicle will drive through multiple stages with 25 levels. Each of these levels will have three objectives, be it collecting coins, finishing within a specific time or touching and exploding bombs. This keeps you coming back to levels you already played, because doing all the objectives for a stage will grant you a bonus of coins. More on that later.

Six levels per stage will have a fourth objective, that only appears after you successfully completed the three original ones. Complete this task and you will be rewarded with a superstar. Collect three of these and Super Star Bonus Levels will unlock which puts our hero inside a pinball machine or another crazy level. You will race the same level multiple times, but you will race against yourself, your ghost. The first two stages (and therefore 54 levels) are free to play. To unlock more stages, you need to invite friends via Facebook (five of them have to accept) or pay $1,99 ($4,99 for all stages including upcoming ones). 

Multiplayer – Challenge your friend, a stranger or the world!

There are three ways to tackle multiplayer; you can invite a friend via mail or Facebook, you can challenge a random person for a race or you can enter the World Championships, that are being held every two hours with a different level. A single challenge, be it against a friend or a random person will let you set a time. Your opponent will then have five turns to beat your time. The winner will get 50 coins, and a point over you. Then it’s their turn to set a time on a level etc. etc.

The world cup pits you against players from all over the world and the reward is 500 coins for the first, a 250 coins for the second and 100 coins for the third prize. The ten people ahead of you in the leader boards are selectable as ghosts to race against and shave those precious few tenths of a second off your time. After two hours, a new level is randomly selected and the race for top place starts again.

 

Bling bling Boom!

The coins you collect in the game and that you can win in challenges are used for only one thing; to customize Boom! and his monowheel. You can also buy these using real money paying between $1,99 and $2,99 per outfit. You can also buy more coins in different quantities and for different prices, or earn them by connecting to Facebook, liking boom and following Boom! on Twitter.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Competitive
• Addictive
• Tons of content for free
• Fast!

Cons

• Costumes are way overpriced
• One…. more…… try…….. 

 

Best Free to Play yet?

Boom! is a genius concept and worked out extremely well. The game is polished and balanced, meaning I haven’t seen any bugs or people winning a tournament due to glitches. I would recommend this game to everyone, young and old. You will be able to play the entire game for free, depending how many friends you can get addicted to racing Boom!’s monowheel. The game is optimized for both iPhone and iPad. I’m going to have one more stab at the current world cup level now…