Tobe & Friends Hookshot Escape Review

Developer: Secret Base
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.1
Device Reviewed On: iPod touch 4, iPad 2

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Tobe & Friends Hookshot Escape appealed to me as soon as I heard about it. I love me some grappling hooks; I have a folder full of games that have grappling hooks on both my iPod touch and my iPad. Super QuickHook remains one of the only games I’ve awarded a five-star rating to in my time here at the site. So I went ahead and checked this one out. It’s not the same as other grappling hook games, as actually the titular hookshot grapples on to the bottom of platforms, flipping Tobe upward. There are enemies to bop, coins to collect, treasure chests to open, and powerups to collect on the way upward, and if Tobe gets scrolled all the way off the screen, it’s game over.

Hookshot Escape plays kind of like The Blocks Cometh with a grappling hook, which is a winning combination in my book. Vertical hooking requires a different set of skills, and finding opportunities to combo multiple hooks together (which earns extra money) is exceptional. The game has plenty of unlockables including new level themes and ability enhancers. Items are available as in-app purchases, but there’s no currency necessary for using them – their only drawback is a mild points decrease.

The jump height increase is probably what this game should have had enabled as a default. Once it’s unlocked, the game becomes a lot more fun because it doesn’t feel like every single jump is a very thin margin of error. While using the higher jump and the long hookshot have helped with getting me up to #3 on the scoreboard, the game just feels more intuitive with them. The game is not an iPad build, but it supports the iPad with graphics that display in full resolution on the on the iPad, with controls that are optimized for the larger display. Why the game isn’t universal to begin with? Good question.

I love grappling hooks, and this game is chock-full of hooking action. Sure, there are other characters who can hammer through blocks, flap their wings multiple times, and shoryuken their way upward, but in a world where the main character has a hookshot, they are irrelevant. Irrelevant, I say! Unless I get bored with grappling hooks, I suppose…but that won’t be any time soon, and Hookshot Escape confirmed that.