Review

Gameplay 70%

Iron Hopper is a zig-zag runner game in isometric perspective with platform elements, where you help a tiny red and gold robot escpae from a huge fiery sphere that’s about to turn it into scorched scrap metal.   The objective of the game is just to survive as long as you can and reach as far away as possible in the zig-zag maze. The control is simple, the robot walks automatically, and you just tap the screen to jump, and tap again for a mid-air jump. When you reach a corner by walking, tap to turn left of right. You can fall down the edge pretty easily if you’re not careful when jumping around, so beware. The are many obstacles in your way, like spikes on the floor, fallen bridges where you can fall down, cannons that shoot fireballs at you, and sticky traps where you’ll be immobilized fora few valuable seconds, while the giant orange sphere is catching up to you. Along the way you can collect coins to unlock new characters and other game features, and when you lose, you can exchange 50 to continue where you left off. There’s also a cool feature that let’s you share the video of your last seconds playing, and share it online with your friends.

Graphics 72%

Iron Hopper features blocky 3D graphics where everything is made of cubes, and you can see them clearly. Is like watching a lego world, since all is pretty square, but there are a few visual effects to make things look cool.   You can see the big ball about to squash you leaving a trail of fading fire, and actually looks like plasma, unlike the blocky models you see everywhere else. Also, the giant sphere of fire is actually rotating and you can see it getting bright yellow and then deep red, like an actual fireball. The robot animation is pretty basic, it doesn’t have elbows or knees, and moves like a MineCraft character just twisting limbs on the shoulder and where legs begin. Everything else is pretty static, you only see the coins spinning around in place like golden coins in Super Mario Bros., and the sticky and lava blocks showing 3 different animation frames. That’s it. The rest is just a hell-ish road over a red yellow gradient void of nothingness.

Production Quality 73%

For a zigzag runner, Iron Hopper offers much more interacting. Usually in these games you only get to tap the screen to turn on the corners, do it before or later than you have to, and fall down.   Here, you actually have to jump over obstacles, have to be quick so a huge fireball doesn’t melt you turning you into charred junk, and also avoid cannon s shooting at you. It’s way more challenging, and fun, than your usual runner with this gameplay dynamic. Also, collecting coins makes it more interesting, since you’re not going to focus on just breaking your previous record, now you may want to get a new skin for the robot instead, so you may take more risky jumps, giving it more replay value.

Value for your Money 79%

Iron Hopper is free on Google Play and the Apple App Store. You’ll see video ads quite frequently, since it’s a very hard game and everytime the robot fails you may see an ad, which can get bothersome. You can get an ad-free version, but this game isn’t good enough to make you want to keep playing for long.

Launch Video

Summary

Iron Hopper has the player performing more actions than your typical zigzag runner, making it more entertaining, but also way more difficult. Try it out if you enjoy this kind of games but wish for more interaction, and you’re up to the challenge. Is a little laggy and it’ll take forever to unlock new characters by collecting coins, but it’s worth attemping to reach a 50 Score, or get destroyed trying. Pros

• Is way more dynamic than your usual zigzag runner
• Simple controls, but challenging gameplay

Cons

• Sometimes the robot gets too close to the bottom of the screen and can’t see dangers ahead
• Ads show up way too often

Game Help Guru Rating 70%