Keeping it Casual #1: The Backflip Madness Review

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Published on Tuesday, 13 November 2012 06:36

As the Android world evolves, so does the content that is being released into the Play store. What was once a platform dominated by great casual games such as Cut the Rope and Dragon Fly, is now being taken over by the more 'hardcore' of games like Need for Speed, Shadowgun and Modern Combat. Controllers are being introduced and the Ouya is on the horizon. This is where I wish to go back to basics, highlighting the best casual games that deserve to be noticed and get them out of the shadows of the bigger budget games. Our first game is Backflip Madness by Gamesoul Studios.

Name: Backflip Madness | Developer: Gamesoul Studios | Category: Casual/Arcade | Players: 1 | Version: 1.1.2 | Size: 5.7 MB | Price: Free (Demo) / $1.49 |

The Concept of this game is very simple, all you have to do is land a backflip, and with only one button to do this with its simple right? Not a chance! To start with you will find that your character will probably land on his head as much as his feet. The secret to this game is timing, you get that right and you will discover what is a great little game. If you get the timing wrong though and you will witness a landing that is as funny as it is frustrating (the ragdoll effects are great here!).

Backflip Madness Features:

• Multiple backflips and locations
• Parkour/Free running acrobatics
• Realistic physics
• Achievements, Challanges and Leaderboards (Scoreloop)
• 3 difficulty levels
• Action replay
• Normal and ninja outfits

This is where other casual games get it wrong when they notch up the difficulty. You just end up uninstalling a game because you know if you throw your phone, the chances are it wont fly! This game though seems to add a sense of humor to failing, whether was intentional or not but it keeps you coming back, practicing, trying that one more time to land the backflip from the top of the building.

Although the levels have different themes, after a while you notice that some of the stages repeat, the first stage of most levels involve just doing a backflip and landing in the same spot. I'm aware this is to warm you up, but its not needed. Also, there are a few glitches, like when you are doing a flip on top of a diagonal rooftop and land again on the rooftop, you slide to the end, which is usually where your target landing area is.

This though does not change the fact that this is a great casual game that you can play for 1 minute or 1 hour. It has nice graphics, gameplay that keeps you coming back, and you can change the type of backflip so this adds more variation to the game. This game may be hard to begin with, but once mastered, its flipping great!!

Overall Rating: 4/5

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