Is That Dynamite in Your Pocket or Are You Just Happy to See Me?

Those of you who follow the show (both of you) know that Dynamite Jack gets a whole lot of love from both the Mac and the PC side of the aisle. Well now you can get your bomb-on on the go because DJ is now available for the iPad.

If you have not read any of our earlier ramblings on this game, Dynamite Jack is an excellent old school Bomberman meets Metal Gear mashup.



The basic premise of the game is to locate your flashlight and dynamite, avoid or bomb the living heck out of the enemies on each level, collect any goodies and escape. I found the game to be simple to learn, fun to play, and hard to put down. Once you are done with the built-in levels you can create and share your own as well as play ones made by other gamers. The editor is very easy to use and I was able to make a fairly complex level in about 15 minutes.

For about the price of a Starbuck's coffee you can get a great game with crisp graphics, a serious yet fair challenge and excellent,  tight controls. Oh yeah... the controls... I'm happy to report that a whole lot of thought has gone into the control system on this game. You can choose to control Jack by drawing a line for him to follow kind of like flight control or use a floating virtual stick to move him around: the floating virtual stick is nice because it tracks your finger's movements no matter where you are on the screen as opposed to a small only set area. What is good about this is that there (obviously) is no tactile feedback on a virtual stick so your finger tends to slide away from the center of the detection area decreasing accuracy. Floating virtual sticks compensate for this. The iCade is fully supported and I consider this is among the best games you can play on it.

I was a little worried about how well this game would work on the iPad because of the serious need for accurate controls in Dynamite Jack and the iPad's long list of barely controllable action games. Having spent a few hours playing I am happy to say Hassey Games has done an excellent job of bringing this game to the small screen. Recommended.

Dynamite Jack is available for $2.99 on the App Store.