Sonic Jump

     Originally released in 2006 for T-Mobile, Sonic Jump has been remade for Android and iOS devices, and was released in October last year. Unlike most cow-clicker games you will find in the android and iOS market, this game does require some skill, some planning... and some fondness for the characters.

Here's the story of Sonic Jump:
    Eggman has Kidnapped tiny animals to use in his robots! Get to the top of the stage to free them!

... Okay, Sonic isn't exactly known for it's epic story lines in mobile games... the fact there was a story at all is a little surprising.

     There are 12 levels in each of the four zones. Numbers 6 and 12 in each zone are a fight with Eggman, where you must avoid his attacks (and him) until he loses his shield, and you can strike. In the other zones, your primary objective is to get to the top as fast as possible, avoiding hazards, like spikes, enemies, saws, and an angry dungeon master sending rocks down to try and kill the party.
     You play as Sonic, or as one of the unlockable characters, in this goal. You also have access to powerups, such as a speed boost, a net to catch you if you fall off the bottom of the screen (you'll die to this more often than the hazards), a shield that protects form one hit (not necessary if you're good enough), an ability that turns enemies into rings, a barrier that attracts rings (does not protect from damage), and a bomb (the ring time is more cost effective for getting rid of enemies. This might be useful if used against Eggman, but I haven't tried it. Probably doesn't work.)

It is a fairly simplistic game, but quite a bit of fun. But, there are a few problems...

First of all, there is the unlockable Characters. They don't play all that different.
     Tails, Blaze, and Amy are slower than Sonic, and don't really have any benefits like a higher jump (tails should have a fly ability, IE a triple jump, and Amy should be able to regular jump much higher considering her abilities).
     Knuckles is slightly faster than sonic, and has a higher double jump, making him a complete upgrade, at the cost of descending faster (actually makes him faster, since a quick descent means a sooner jump).
     Rouge and Silver are able to hover after their double jump, which one would think it would be useful for the disappearing platforms, but they do not hover long enough to have a considerable effect, and the hover actually makes them a lot slower, since they take longer to descend.
     I'd recommend going back and giving them unique abilities; like a triple jump for tails, a higher jump and double jump for Amy, nerf Knuckles so he is a bit slower but has the highest double jump, allow Rogue to fly to the top of the screen as long as the scree is tapped in rhythm, and make Silver automatically float towards the top without jumping (speed up with a double jump). They are planning on adding new characters, but I say make the current ones more interesting. I like knuckles alright, but I'd prefer that all the characters be good.

Second, the ring cost. Each power up has a ring cost, and the ability to upgrade them. That's perfectly normal and all, but they cost A LOT. The quickest zone with the most rings I found was the Green Hill Zone, levels 1-3. You can get 300 rings in about 3 minutes there... but the highest level for upgrades is 7500 rings. It would take 75 minutes to get the highest level upgrade, and there are 4 different upgrades, and 3 different levels. It actually comes out to 11,000 rings per item, which would be almost 2 hours of grinding rings per upgrade, 8 hours for all.
And that's just it, after completing all the levels, all that is left is to do is grind. After everything has been S ranked and all the red rings are gathered, it's just unlocking wallpapers for your iPhone/Pad and upgrading abilities. It is understandable to add longevity to the game, but the prices are quite ridiculous, not aided by the fact there are micro-transactions in place.


My best recommendation to people who want to get the game: Save your rings, don't purchase new items, don't unlock new characters (except for knuckles, get him), and only upgrade the items. You'll save yourself a lot of extra trouble. After they are fully upgraded you can go for 100% completion (It'll take you a while still though).


All in all, I still really like this game. I have fun with it, even if it does become a bit of a grind. It's only a buck, and considering it lasts 8 hours just off of grinding for 100% completion, so it is worth more than most console games today. I just hope that the team behind it give more diversity to the characters.


This has been Fixer Sue, currently working on getting more images for this site than "Wrenches! Wrenches everywhere!"