Thumper: Pocket Edition in IOS

★★★★★

★★★★★ Buh gawd, they did it again!

Was a big supporter of Thumper on PS4, as it was one of, if not the best early PSVR games. I was skeptical how this would translate to a touch screen, but after picking it up on sale, I can say that they’ve made the game feel right at home on this platform. In a lot of ways, the touch controls are actually better. I’ve noticed myself getting more into the rhythm aspect of the game now that I’m not thinking about button combinations on a controller. The game looks beautiful and runs buttery smooth on the iPhone X, while taking advantage of the full display. I really just wanted to leave my positive feedback for this great title that went under a lot of people’s radars. Even after beating the game, you’ll have the urge to go back and improve your scores and work your way up the leaderboards, like great arcade games of the past.

★★★★★ Fantastic Game

Unbelievably responsive and intuitive controls. Consistently fun and challenging. Very nice and helpful dev team that fixed a bug soon after I reported it. The only time I cursed the developers was for the change of pace on the last level, but you get used to it quickly and then it’s even more fun. No complaints about the music, but it keeps getting described (at least by Apple) as metal. I don’t know what it is, but it’s not metal. I also love that there’s no story or explanation. You’re just a space beetle on a Hot Wheels track fighting some sort of increasingly angry space demon with a series of precisely timed moves/gestures for no apparent reason. And if a mushroom-eating Italian plumber can be one of the most iconic characters in video game history, you don’t need a reason. They boiled it down to just the pure fun bits. Great game across the board.

★★★★★ iPhone X controls buggy

Developer replied and improved controls. I’m very happy about that and have updated my review. Thanks! The graphics on this game are well made and I really want to enjoy it, but I’m consistently encountering control bugs. For example, level 1-10 & 11 have a few segments where you tap (jump over a spotlight), hold (to pass through several bars), then swipe left/right (to turn left/right.) The jump & hold work great, but the game often misinterprets the swipe as a continued hold and the player crashes into the turn. At first I just assumed it was me, but after continued play and handing to friends to try, we’re finding that this is more often a misinterpreted gesture than a player timing issue. I’m hoping updates can improve gesture detection for turns immediately following holds.

★★★★★ Best Mobile Port

Wow. I played this on PC, and had no idea how excellent a port could be until I picked this masterpiece up a few weeks ago. The controls are different, but I picked it up real quick and can see myself taking on the more difficult play+ modes given some practice. I noticed that the multilane sections that used motion controls were easier than the PC port, which is fitting due to the difficulty involved. Some reviewers despise the motion controls, but I welcomed them since it was quickly apparent how much balance and forethought Drool put into these changes. Go motion! There is only one problem this game has ever faced, and that is the loading times. Drool pulled it off alright on mobile, and loading is faster than on PC, but subpar for the mobile market.

★★★★★ This game is sick!

At first the game is pretty easy and aside from the slick graphics, not too exciting. This is because the early levels are more like tutorials teaching you the different actions such as swipes, jumps, pounds, tilts and stuff. As the levels progress however, things start to get hairy. Around level 4-11 things start getting insane and the various actions, intense speed, and killer graphics make this an exhilarating experience. Things also get really cool then (if you don’t crash) the actions start making music that goes along with the beat in the background, and once you get the songs in mind, the “music” kinda helps with maneuvering your space beetle without crashing. It’s awesome, just buy it!

★★★★★ Everything is amazing

This game has kept me occupied for many days straight with lots of challenge. The only reason this review is missing a star is because when you restart from your current checkpoint, you are no longer able to restart from your last checkpoint. Also, quitting the level or app when you have the option to restart from your last checkpoint removes that option which makes getting all S ranks on each level kind of tedious. I missed an S rank on level and had to restart the whole level because I couldn’t restart from my previous checkpoint. Other than that one problem I have, the visuals are mesmerizing and the rhythms are a blast to learn to perfect your skill. I would totally consider recommending this to a friend or buying the game on PC.

★★★★★ Call and Response

Thumper does an amazing job with its visuals, full of speedy nightmarish scenes. I enjoyed the rhythm aspect less, for two reasons. The controls feel decent on an iPad, but I keep suspecting that they’d feel much more precise and snappy with a controller than screen swiping - for a game that is all about being precise. The other issue is it feels to hard listen to the rhythm. The sound cues are solid, but the call and response can overlap. This means I couldn’t clearly hear what was coming up next over what I was currently doing. Combined with lots of offbeats and a twisty track means I rely more on visual estimation, trial and error, and memory, instead of internalizing the rhythm. It’s still very satisfying once you can do it correctly, but the process of getting there wasn’t as fun for me as it is in other rhythm games.