Format: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch
Developer: Miniclip.com
What do we have here another endless runner style game? Well let me tell you this right off the bat. Calling Sketchman just another endless runner is really harsh as this game to me felt like it was a throw back to the 8 and 16-bit days of gaming. And whenever I get a flash back like that the majority of the time that is a good thing.
The graphics will grab you attention right away. Not because they are the most hi res, highly detailed character models that you have ever seen. But because Sketchman is a game that stars a stick figure man in a world that looks like it was scribbled on a A4 piece of paper. It gives the game a very unique look that makes it stand out from the pack. What is really cool about the games presentation is despite it looking like it was drawn by some guy on his lunch break. The environments, characters and everything else is very well designed. Make no mistake about it Sketchman is a great looking game. And it just goes to show that you do not need a high polygon count and ultra realistic facial animations to have a good looking game.
As well as the games interesting art design it is also a ton of fun to play. Yes at heart this may seem like an endless runner. I mean after all the goal is to run for as long as you can, but there are a few things in the game that made me feel like I was playing some old school scrolling shooter on my Sega Genesis.
Sketchman is always running forward and you only have two buttons to worry about. One of these buttons will make him shoot. Which you will need to do often as there are many things and people who will kill you. And the other button makes you jump. A double tap of the jump button will make out little stick figured hero double jump. You can actually tap the jump button three times. When you do this Sketchman will float for a short period of time. It is a very easy control scheme that any one can learn within a few minutes of playing the game. To mix things up there are a few power ups that do a variety of things like make you invincible for a short period or perhaps give you some armour.
The idea is that you need to run as long as possible. The game of course gets harder and harder as you progress. As well as staying alive you will also need to collect a bunch of coins. These coins can be used to buy new weapons and upgrades for Sketchman. The stuff in the game store is very expensive so you will need to play the game for a while in order to buy some good stuff.
In all I had an absolute blast playing Sketchman. The endless runner genre is getting pretty over crowded so its good to see a game that at the very least tries to be different.