Games for the Weekend is a weekly feature aimed at helping you avoid doing something constructive with your downtime. Each Friday we’ll be recommending a game for Mac, iPhone or iPad that we think is awesome. Here is one cool enough to keep you busy during this weekend.
Gravity Guy 2 ($ 0.99, Universal) is different from your typical run-and-jump platform game. In this endless runner, you control the platform, not the guy.
In Gravity Guy you don’t actually jump, instead it is the platform that moves to propel your clone into the air. As you run forward, you tap and hold down on the right side of the screen to move the platform up into the air. Releasing will cause the platform to lower itself back down to its original level. This up-and-down motion is just enough the toss your clone up into the air.
If you need an extra little boost, you can tap on the left side of the screen to use your jet pack and push your clone up just a little bit more. Through the actions of moving the platforms up and down as well as using quick bursts from your jet pack , you maneuver your clone from one platform to the next. What is not apparent at first is that you can also raise the next platform while your clone is in the air to modify the position on the platform you land at. This technique becomes more essential as you try to level up your clone by completing a series of three missions per level.
On each run there are glowing green spots on certain platforms. Landing directly on a spot signifies a perfect landing. There are also tall green glowing beams called bullseyes that you will want to jump through to earn bonuses. Making successive perfect landings or passing multiple bullseyes one after another will increase your combo or bonus multiplier. As you advance levels, some of the missions you will face include earning an increasing number of combo multipliers in a single run. Other missions are as easy as raising a certain number of platforms, running a particular distance without falling, or just using a certain number of special powers.
While the challenges do get increasingly difficult, they are never difficult for the clone you are using. There are special powers that your clone can use when you need to complete a particular challenge. For instance, if you need to collect a large number of coins in a single run, you may elect to use the Amplifier power, which increases the number of coins awarded for making a perfect landing or hitting a bullseye.
There are seven different clones you can use throughout the game, each with its own unique abilities. Neon will earn an additional stash of coins when you level up, Troop earns more coins through rewards, Girl earns more coins when collecting jewels, Slim has a more powerful boost, Mech can revive itself, Beast allows rolls to increase combo multipliers and Beauty just earns more coins overall. The seventh clone is Guy, who starts out the game and has no special powers to speak of. As you level up you will unlock each of the clones.
There are a lot of opportunities to earn coins in Gravity Guy 2. This is primarily due to the fact that in order to use a power on an individual run, you must spend your coins to do so. Each power you use on a single run will cost you more coins. Once you fall and your run is over, the power goes away and you will need to pay again to use the power.
You also use your coins to unlock powers earlier in the game before you earn them. The same is true if you want to use a particular clone before you level up enough to unlock it. You can even spend coins to skip a particular mission; this comes in handy when there is a mission that you just can’t seem to get past. While earning enough coins to successfully play the game is not very difficult, you can buy additional coins via in-app purchases.
If you like the game play that this sequel offers to the genre of endless running platform games, you will also enjoy playing the game’s predecessor, Gravity Guy ($ 0.99 iPhone, $ 2.99 iPad). In the first edition of the game you flip the laws of physics by changing the direction gravity pulls you. One tap and gravity is pulling you toward the ceiling, another and it is pulling you toward the floor again. With such wild variations in how gravity affects Guy, one can only wonder what a third edition of this title would be like.
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