Barry Steakfries is back in his best adventure yet!

Strap on your jetpack and get ready for a non-stop, amazingly fun mobile gaming.

The premise of the game is simple… you, Barry Steakfries (hero extraordinaire) are constantly propelled forward and using one finger to throttle your jetpack, you must avoid laser, missles, and electrodes, pick up coins and get as far as possible. However, the game is so much more than just that. Unlockables, upgrades, costumes, power-ups and a end of the game slot machine that spits out do-overs, coins and more make sure that every game is different, fresh and unpredictable.

Like any endless runner, your main objective is distance, however Jetpack Joyride offers players a robust mission system (outside of the usual Game Center/Open Feint achievements) that will have you trying to complete tasks to level up your rank and earn bonus piles of coins which can then be spent on new jetpacks, clothing and various consumables to help you in future “runs”.

Aside from the things purchasable via the game’s “coin” currency, there a few items that you can spend real cold hard cash on as well. For the most part these are collections of coins to help speed up your ability to purchase upgrades, but there is one 99¢ item worth mentioning, the ‘counterfeit machine’. If you make one-time purchase of the counterfeit machine, then any coins you collect during ALL future runs will be doubled! This includes the massive bonuses that you earn when leveling up. This is a great way to speed up your ability to buy new items, or consumable power-ups.

The attention to detail and care that Halfbrick has put into this game is immediately evident, the graphics look stunning on both the iPhone and iPad. The extra time that Halbrick took to polish the graphics to offer the best possible experience to iPhone 4 and iPad 2 owners (of which I am both) is much appreciated. The development team has gone out of their way to offer up a bit of fan service to the iOS community, from making the game a 99¢ UNIVERSAL app, to references to other iOS titles, to a brilliantly elegant cloud save mechanism to keep your iPhone and iPad in sync.

Jetpack Joyride is anything and everything an iOS mobile gamer could possibly have hoped for. Oh, and they aren’t done yet! In fact Halfbrick just released their first update to the game, adding a cool new dragon power-up (named Mr. Cuddles), a Fruit Ninja-themed jetpack and even a new character, their Chief Marketing Officer, Phil Larsen!

I’ve only just touched on a fraction of the amazing little nuances of the game that make it so much fun, I could go on for much longer, but I think I’ll wrap up the review here.

In Conclusion

Who in their right mind would NOT love a game that straps all manner of jetpack on your back. If ever there was an ideal mobile game, Jetpack Joyride would be it. The game offers players addictive short satisfying “one more try” game play experiences along with a robust selection of longer-term missions, goals and unlocks. I really don’t have anything bad to say about the game, except that occasionally the cloud sync behaves a little wonky, but the mere fact that it’s even in there is gravy! If you don’t own Jetpack Joyride already, shame on you, it’ll be one of the best dollars you spend on the App Store this year!