Minecraft meets Mario. Junk Jack has ideas aplenty, but needs to better work out what it wants to do with them.
It’s quite hard to know what to make of Junk Jack: on one hand it’s a side-scrolling platformer, but on the other there’s a clear nod towards RPG-esque depth. You control Jack, running and building things. Movement is done through swiping in your intended direction – it’s nicely simple, but imprecise. Sometimes there are small monster-like creatures, which come out to play at night.
Your goal? Survival. And… actually, that’s it. Junk Jack professes to be indebted to Minecraft – and this is evident in the cutely blocky aesthetic – but there’s more on offer here than just chucking some bricks together.
Materials do have a sense of worth about them – you have to gather them yourself, by digging, mining or killing things – and they can be crafted to form useful items. That said, it’s not intuitive – the instruction ‘craftbook’ takes up /over 30 screens/ – and combat is frustratingly limited. You may keep Jack alive, but it’s hard to gauge exactly what he’s living for.
Download this app: Junk Jack for iPad
Best iPhone apps | Apple iPhone 5 review
Review courtesy of Tap!
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