Ascend to bird heaven in Frinkle
Frinkle takes players on a challenging journey from bird hell, climbing higher and higher, to bird heaven. Players control the adventurous bird's vertical migration by tapping to make it jump and control it's flapping while trying to land on moving platforms. Frinkle is compatible with iOS devices running iOS 4.3 or later.
Think Doodle Jump meets Flappy Bird with a little Angry Birds thrown in for good measure. If players hit the bottom of the platform, the bird explodes in a flourish of feathers. Players can tap the bird character up to five times before it plummets toward the ground which increases the difficulty of progressing higher and higher. This means that players have to be deliberate in their movements and cautious about trying to jump two or more platforms above where they are.
Getting high enough to get out of bird hell takes quite a bit of patience. Having to retry from the beginning is very frustrating and it is hard for players to get far easily. It takes a lot of dedication and a good competitive spirt to reach the earth level. There is a a competitive aspect to Frinkle and it does have an addictive feel to it.
The character design and some of the background art in Frinkle also echos the art styles in games such as Flappy Bird and Angry Birds. There is a playful feel to the art style and the transition from bird hell to earth and then to bird heaven takes advantage of transitional shades of colors. In bird hell, the colors are much darker than they are in bird heaven and earth is a blend of the two. These color choices add up to a delightful journey from darkness to bright light.
The further players get in Frinkle, the harder the levels become. For instance, in the earth level, the platforms will break if players land on them too many times which adds more for players to be cautious and strategic about. The competitive nature of Frinkle, with each level challenging players to push through and try to get a high score welcomes competitions with friends through Game Center.
There is a banner ad at the top of the screen that pops up shortly after starting to play Frinkle, which detracts from the gameplay and is annoying to see in a game that already causes frustration for players by the sheer difficulty of the levels alone. The font size of the "score" and "high score" text on the game over screen could be bigger as currently it is hard to read. It looks weird that those words are really small compared to the game over text which is appropriately sized.
Frinkle is free on the App Store and recommended for players who enjoy challenging and addictive games.
