Sonic Ditches Running For Jumping. Was It A Good Move?

Posted 5 months ago By - Michael Dulson

Sonic has been around for a number of years and he’s had a few different jobs, such as Olympic athlete, runner, racer, etc... Now he has a new item to add to his resume: jumping. Sega has given mobile gamers a Doodle Jump clone featuring their blue hedgehog mascot (based on the old 2006 mobile game of the same name). How does Sonic Jump fare against other jumper games?

Sonic Jump has two modes, Story and Arcade. The Story mode features three different worlds with over thirty levels, plus the requisite ‘more content coming soon’ moniker that is fairly common these days. Arcade is the endless mode. Both feature leaderboard support, but it doesn’t truly become competitive until you are in the Arcade mode. Each world is inspired by worlds from past Sonic games. Each also has its own unique platforms and enemies, giving the game a nice amount of variety. The graphics are beautifully done and look really sharp. The music and sound effects are also well done, bringing in the familiar audio from past Sonic games. Players control Sonic by tilting their device left or right, with an extra boost attained by a double jump (by tapping on the screen after the first jump). Tilting is the only control scheme available, which is a shame because the tilt sometimes takes a life of its own and jumps too far over to where you may be trying to jump to. I’m not a fan of gyroscopic controls, and I’m sure there are plenty of other people who feel the same, so having a secondary control option would have been very welcomed.

"The Sonic style of gameplay makes this feel so much more inline with a traditional Sonic title than an endless jumper."

Sonic Jump is an endless jumper, but it brings the ideas of Sonic gameplay to it. Rings are a way of health, and once you get hit with no rings in reserve, it’s game over. The rings you collect can be used for power-ups or to unlock other characters. Rings are easy to collect, but it’s incredibly challenging to maintain them as one hit can do you in (just as it is in the classic Sonic platformer series). One touch and you to lose them all no matter if you have 1, 10, 100, 200 or more. It is challenging, but that just serves to make it enjoyable. The challenge is what makes you come back. Enemies are dastardly placed, and platforms switch at the wrong moments, but after you lose, the game has that “just one more game” effect. I played it until the early hours in the morning while I kept telling myself one more game.

Final Focus

The Sonic style of gameplay makes this feel so much more inline with a traditional Sonic title than an endless jumper. Sega has given Sonic fans, and fans of the jumper genre, their next must download. Sonic Jump is a fun take on the jumper genre! You can download it now on the App Store for $1.99.