Nyan-Jelly: Get & Float (iOS) Review

Nyan-Jelly: Get & Float is charming, simple, and easy to pick up and play for five minutes. It is a great on-the-go title for iDevices. It might be very easy to be put off due to it being a free-to-play game, but if given the benefit of the doubt it might prove itself to be one title that will regularly be tried on many bus journeys in the future.

What makes Nyan-Jelly: Get & Float a good choice in a world filled with free-to-play releases is its simplicity, mixed with a great game balance and a collectible system that might make it last for a while, which equates to it being a highly addictive and fun experience. The gameplay is extremely simple, yet offers the difficulty of games of old. Tap on the screen to make the Nyan-Jelly float and from there avoid enemies in form of fish. It might sound basic, and it is easy to understand, but it is hard to execute, requiring fine hand-eye co-ordination to achieve higher scores, as well as the skill of memorising stages - everything becomes quite addictive in the end.

Different Nyan-Jellys can be collected, with over 30 available, and stickers can be put on them in a dress-up like game where the Nyan-Jellys get turned into beautiful desserts. It is a very fun little mechanic that promotes replayability at the same time as it adds value, which is somewhat a rare feat and a relief from the current age of games that focus on completely useless Achievements to try to enforce replayability.

Without this extra, though, it will be hard to keep things going for longer than one hour. At the time of writing, Nyan-Jelly: Get & Float offers three different stages that house some varying setups. Without the dress-up element, though, there is very little incitement to give Nyan-Jelly: Get & Float the time it needs to prove itself. Hopefully, more content will be released over time, but in its current state everything feels a little bare due to its lack of levels.

As this is a free-to-play title, it almost as written into a prophecy that there will be DLC for it. Nyan-Jelly: Get & Float does, however, in difference to most Western free-to-play titles, not rub this into the face of gamers, and the DLC is mostly consistent of extra collectibles, which is very fair for its price and nothing that severely hampers the game for those who just want to play it for free.

What ultimately flows through this is a feeling of cuteness, joy and simplicity. It never has to get more complex than it is and the light-hearted and joyful graphics will help brighten up anyone's day. Putting some ice cream and berries on the collected Nyan-Jellys is also likely to raise a smile or two.