Clumsy Bob Review

By , on January 12, 2011


Clumsy Bob
Download on the AppStore
4 out of 5

PROS

  • Fun and slightly manic art style.
  • Dynamic background music.
  • Fun power-ups that have good and bad aspects.
  • Responsive controls.

CONS

  • Very luck oriented gameplay; poor power-up or enemy placement can result in very long or very short runs.

VERDICT

Clumsy Bob is a decent endless title, but with little else to do it's counting on you not already being burnt out by the consistent stream of other horizontal runners.


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Clumsy Bob by Flygames and Clickgamer takes a somewhat odd approach to the 'endless' gameplay style by turning the Doodle Jump gameplay on its side, forcing the titular character Bob to constantly bounce on clouds while collecting bonuses to increase the final score.

All you'll need is a steady hand and a bit of spare time as you tilt your iDevice to control the momentum of your cartoonish elephant on his journey. Various enemies must be avoided to prevent being consumed whole and other hazards ranging from exploding clouds to spikes are also out to end your run. One thing that sets Clumsy Bob apart from other endless titles is the risk inherent to the so-called 'power-ups', with each one having a distinct downside to them that can just as easily cause you to fail instead of adding to your final score. In particular, the ever-present 'rocket' will shoot you along the screen speedily, but you'll have to tilt to avoid new aerial enemies that will knock you out of the air.

Stylistically, Clumsy Bob is quite over the top with its manic cheery visuals and upbeat background music that smoothly shifts as you progress (or fail). Playing the game is almost tantamount to experiencing a waking fever-dream of bizarre proportions, but the lighthearted style serves the game well as you hit the replay button almost reflexively to save the cheery elephant from his dismal fate.

The usual integration with Crystal provides players with constant high score and achievement updates, adding to the game's replayability, but ultimately Clumsy Bob is another endless title to throw on to the pile; albeit an extremely amusing one. If you don't already own a handful of endless titles and you're after something different from the usual crop, Clumsy Bob will gladly fill that time-waster role on your iDevice.

Screenshots

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