App Review - Junk Jack

Ever wanted to dig down into the abysmal depths of endless caverns, Egyptian tombs, and caves filled with mushrooms?

Ever wanted to fight your way through endless hordes of zombies, giant spiders and killer dolls?

Ever wanted to build mansions, containing all your favourite items, such as scarecrows, tombstones and Christmas trees?

Ever wanted to do all these things and more from the ease of your iPhone? Then Junk Jack is the ultimate game app.

Much like its PC counterparts, Minecraft and Terraria, Junk Jack is an open world 2D crawler, reminiscent of age gone era of 8-bit gaming.

The sheer amount of things to do is mind-boggling, from framing the friend mobs, such as sheep and chicken, to digging your way down, fighting enemies you encounter on the way and collecting items to use for crafting.

On that note, the variety of items you can obtain is even more astonishing.

The extent of items you pick can get overwhelming, and trying to sort through the blocks, plaints and ores can be a big pain.

Besides having the basic tools and weapons, you can encrust them with gem that can give them extra powers, such as increasing durability to the items to providing light from the weapons, useful for down in the caves.

You can also double up weapons so it doesn’t take up room in your inventory; a feature that’s lacking in Minecraft. Hopefully they’ll keep that in the sequel.

The crafting system is similar to Minecraft, with a three by three grid where you place items in a certain position to make more useful stuff. You’re given a crafting book at the start of the game which has a few instruction on making basic items, such as the workbench, anvil and forge.

As you venture throughout the world you will discover piece of paper that have recipe explaining how to make other items. How the craft book is implemented allows you to have enough information to get going, and with each recipe, which you will eagerly look at for a new recipe, means you’re not dumped with too much information.

Although you can purchase a complete craft book, it is better to find these recipes yourself.

Although you can’t customise your character that much, you can buy skins that can drop items to help you. Not only are they cheap, at $1.29 each, but well worth it.

There are a few faults in this game though. The inventory system can at times be uncooperative, with items not going where you want it to go.

Also note that you can’t equip armour, nor does the game have liquids, such as water and lava. However the developers have promise these features in the sequel, including co-op.

If it’s to go by, with a game this good, the sequel without doubt be even better. For such a low price, $4.19, Junk Jack will produce endless hours of entertainment on such a small device.

Rating: 4.5/5