Mr Jump
Platform: iOS
Mr Jump by 1Button SARL is the latest in a long line of those free brutal platformers iOS players apparently can't get enough of. In it, your goal is to navigate the titular character through levels were a single mistimed jump will force you to start again, since touching spikes, falling into water, hitting walls, or any other obstacle is considered a one-hit KO. Mr Jump runs forward automatically, and all you have to do is tap to jump... quick taps for light hops, and extended presses for bigger leaps. Unlike other games in this category, Mr Jump isn't randomly generated... all of the levels are predesigned, and they're finite as well, so finishing one unlocks another. Different levels even have other tricks in addition to a (mercifully) different soundtrack and style, such as tokens you need to nab in mid-air to perform an extra jump.
While the advent of mobile gaming has definitely popularized the genre, simple, high-difficulty games are nothing new. Chris Jeffrey's Space is Key games, for example, feature much the same formula as Mr Jump, and Terry Cavanagh's Super Hexagon has been entrancing and enraging people for nearly three years. At this point, when it comes to games like this based entirely around split-second timing and simple mechanics, you either love 'em or hate 'em, and Mr Jump doesn't exactly shake up the formula. The controls are, however, simple and responsive, while helps remove some of the sting from having to restart because you stubbed your toe on the edge of a cliff. The various levels you can unlock bring minor changes to the gameplay that add a nice bit of variety to the whole thing, and while the game is completely free, you can purchase a key to unlock the next level immediately rather than having to beat the previous one to unlock it freely. The only other in-app purchase removes the static ads that pop up between every four or five runs, which is hardly unreasonable. Mr Jump brings goals and a few simple twists to the by-now classic brutally difficult action formula, with even more levels coming later on, and is a great addition to your library of games that make you want to throw your phone in the river and then set it on fire.
To Be or Not To Be (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch)
I've been playing this the past few days, and it's pretty fun, and very frustrating.
A couple comments though:
1) There are no checkpoints. If you die, you start over at the beginning of the level.
2) The difficulty ramps up *fast*. On average it's taken me 200+ attempts to beat the harder levels, and I'm only on level 6 (of 12!)
That's strange... are you sure there are no checkpoints? I'm fairly certain for some levels I didn't have to replay the entire thing when I died.
Positive.
I'm on lvl 10 of this game. It's great but tough to poop while playing because of how butthole-clenchingly tense it is. The precision required to complete a level is no joke.
Update