Adventure platformers that require extreme precision have always been a hit and miss in touch gaming. This due to the reason that almost always, physical buttons are needed to get a better feel on how hard or soft you are pressing the buttons.
That’s why it is always refreshing to see and play a game that is different from this — Jazz: Trump’s Journey ($2.99 via iTunes) is a story of a young jazz player named trump in his quest to gain fame, love and self-discovery in the old 1920′s New Orleans. However, before he can achieve that, he must win a local band and your job as the player is to guide Trump into levels, collecting musical notes, pictures and band members as you progress.
At first glance the game is obviously inspired by the 20′s black and white silent film — the stages however are colored but still follows the same film-reel style of presentation.
Usually, you only see three virtual buttons on the screen, left, right and jump. Early in the game, you will also gain access to Trump’s trumpet that can stop time on certain elements in the game thus, giving you a fourth button. Up and down buttons appear when you are on a ladder or rope and a grab button is available for moving blocks when Trump is near them. The buttons are so strategically placed that these buttons do not hinder your view of the iPad screen all without sacrificing the comfortable hold of the device.
The levels strat off really easy, but it gets pretty difficult where you need to be extremely precise with the jumps early on. The game compensates for this with a lot of checkpoints and unlimited lives.
And all that Jazz!
As expected from a game that focuses on a musician, the background music is just stellar. While Trump is still alone and is looking to find his first band member to recruit, you will only one trumpet (albeit extremely well played) playing. As you collect band members, though, more musical instruments are added into the score, making it a really good chill out music.
The icing on the cake is the beautiful story behind it. I will let you find out about it, but it is all about finding comfort in your own race.
To wrap up, Jazz: Trump’s Journey is a masterpiece every gamer that grew up playing Mario should play this. (And that means pretty much every gamer out there.) I extremely recommend this game. 5/5
Download Jazz: Trump’s Journey ($2.99 via iTunes)
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