by T.J. Brumfield

Not many people know, but Mario was originally called Jumpman in Donkey Kong. Later he became the Italian plumber we all know and love. There was another classic game called Jumpman back in 1983. Well, Leaf Bound is here with a girl named Yuri who would like to inherent the Jumpman crown. All Yuri does is jump. She jumps when she breathes. She jumps when she sleeps. And when she wants to jump, she jumps some more.

I think you get the point. In this game, you don’t even have to do anything to jump. Jumping is a given. It is inherent, and intrinsic law of the Leaf Bound universe. All you do is swipe your finger from left to right to control the direction Yuri is jumping in. Along the way there are Mecha-Monkeys. And if there are Mecha-Monkeys, it is also inherent that there will be Mecha-Monkey Mayhem. You learn to expect such behavior from robotic primates.

Yuri’s job is to jump on these monkeys. I’m not sure she collects a paycheck for it, but she is jumping anyways, so it is no major inconvenience to her. You have to keep jumping to climb to the top of the level. You do this by bouncing off those naughty primates, the occasional ledge, and leaves that seem to very slowly drop from the sky. Physics be damned, as falling leaves provide the perfect surface for you to bound from most of the time.

Yuri leaps with amazing prowess very high into the air. It is slightly less amazing when you encounter gravity-defying fruit hanging in the air. Not even Yuri can defy gravity the way giant oranges can. The various fruit power-ups are collected on your journey to the top. Collect any three, and you receive a heart to replenish part of your health. Do so, and you will see Yuri hug a giant heart with exuberance and emotional hyperbole reminiscent of anime. Frankly, no girl on the planet can possibly be as happy as Yuri is when she hugs that giant heart.

If you happen to pick up hot sauce or hot peppers, then life begins to get interesting. As you reach your next power-up, you may want to pass it by. Combined with other power-ups, the peppers and hot sauce do nothing. But combine any three hot power-ups together, and you gain temporary invincibility. You also seem to skyrocket up to top even faster than before. Logically, I can assume this is from the natural allergic reaction to hot peppers that forces Yuri to rocket towards relief. The painful burn of hot peppers makes her oblivious to the attacks of Mecha-Monkeys who might normally harm her. Who cares if she suffers, so long as you beat the level that much quicker.

As you reach the top of each level (there is an indicator on the left) a boss appears. This boss is none too pleased with your desire to jump. They want to train Yuri not to jump using negative reinforcement techniques inspired by Maslow’s dogs. But you can’t stop Yuri from jumping. Jump on the boss a few times for good measure, and then rocket on to the next level.

At the end of each level you get a point breakdown for the various power-ups you picked up along the way. You then continue to the next boss. Lather, rinse and repeat. There aren’t many levels. An in Arcade mode can you can simply skip to the level you want to play. But Pixel Stream’s website mentions they are considering adding more levels, more characters and more features. And in the end, this is a 99 cent app.

I don’t love it personally because at times I was jumping so quickly that I couldn’t really see in time what was above me that I was jumping into. I felt like I simply watched what was happening to Yuri as opposed to controlling her. But sometimes you want quick mindless fun. Leaf Bound certainly provides that.

This tip originated on the referenced site: http://www.iphoneappreviews.net