Wall Kickers review
:: KICK PUSH KICK PUSHPrice: Free
Version: 1.1
App Reviewed on: iPhone SE
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To this day, I contend that Ball King is one of the greatest mobile games ever made. Despite being a super simple game, its strength comes from nailing a single, tiny mechanic to the point that it feels so good every time you do it. This is basically what Wall Kickers is also doing. This endless platformer is built all around wall jumps, and it’s surprisingly fun.
Jump to the chase
At its core, Wall Kickers is an endless game that follows the Crossy Road blueprint, only with wall jumps instead of Frogger-like gameplay. You try to get as far as possible, inevitably die, and can then cash in coins that you earn for new characters before starting another run. It’s that simple.
The game uses a simple tap to jump control scheme that works quite well. You can tap once to leap from a wall and tap again in mid-air to change directions. Based on the length of your tap, you also get some control over the height and distance of your jumps.
Puzzle-like parkour
As you jump between walls in Wall Kickers, you aren’t just trying to make increasingly difficult jumps, you’re also trying to avoid spiked platforms, bouncing off of walls you can’t cling to, and timing your jumps from walls that act as conveyor belts. Each session of Wall Kickers presents you with some new obstacles, and it’s always fun to try and figure out how to navigate them.
One of the neatest features of Wall Kickers is actually the fact that levels aren’t always immediately re-randomized between runs. For several sessions in a row, players can take on the same layout of platforms they previously died on, which gives you a chance to fix some of your old mistakes or take advantage of things you perhaps didn't see in an earlier run.
Kickin it
Aside from simply jumping from wall to wall, there’s not a whole lot that Wall Kickers has to offer, but that’s kind of the point. This isn’t the next mobile rpg you should sink tons of hours into. It’s a simple arcade experience that feels good when you open it up to crank out a few rounds before moving onto something else.
Wall Kickers is particularly great as a bite-sized for two main reasons. The first is that the game’s jumping feels great. Characters make really satisfying arcs that you always feel like you’re in complete control of, despite the game’s limited control scheme. The second reason for Wall Kickers is a little more subtle, but no less important. The fact that the game has no explicit time pressure for you to make your jumps makes Wall Kickers a lot less hectic than a ton of other little arcade phone games.
The bottom line
Wall Kickers is a great little package. It probably won’t be your next obsession, but it’s not a game that really feels like it’s shooting for that, either. This is just a good game to have on your phone when you want a minute or two of satisfying action, and it delivers on this front in spades.