I've never been one to play a lot of games on my phones, but with increasingly more addicting games making their way to Android Market and Apple's App Store, avoiding them is a hard thing to do. I played Angry Birds once and I was hooked. Game development teams like Lab Pixies and Camel Games have certainly raised the bar for the games on Android. I'm pleased to see slow growth in graphically beautiful applications making their way to the Market, especially quick, fun games that don't strain your brain too hard or frustrate you into quitting. The first of the Camel Games products that I will share my thoughts on is Hyper Jump. It isn't the first of its kind, but in my opinion, it's the best of all of the “platform jump” games. Its competition, Doodle Jump, Abduction, and about a hundred other of the same form, are fun, but not as fast paced or entertaining.

When you click “Start” your sack-character is launched upward into an endless stream of familiar, Mario-like coins. Each coin you hit boost you up a little further and adds a point to your grand total, and much like all of the others, you cannot land on the same one twice as once you hit a coin, it is “collected” and it disappears. If you miss a coin and there are no coins below it, you will fall and the game is over. There are three different types of coins in the game, only two of which you can collect. The red coins pan from left to right, making it more difficult to hit them in succession and judge where they will be on your way up or down. The gold coins are plain and stationary, and add one point to your overall score. The coins with the cut-out star are the ones that cannot be collected. During game play they look similar to the basic gold coins, but they will move away from you, slightly throwing you off until you get used to them.

Your total score is based on your coins collected and how many feet you've climbed. There are also power-ups throughout the game. There are feather, bubble, superman, rocket booster, and randomizer power-ups that you will see at random during your ascent. What fun would this game be without a little extra challenge, right? There are also obstacles you will encounter on your way up that you will want to avoid. Two are fish-like objects (one stationary, one moving left-to-right) that will knock you down, the other is an anchor that looks like a power-up, but will obviously make you heavier and pull you down. When you do different things within the game, you will earn achievements that you can view through the options page. You can create different accounts and save your high scores, which you can compare locally or globally. Also, the game has customization options that you can alter and make the game look and play different. You can change your character to a Cyclops, Kamanche, or Satan, change the level background, and you can even toggle the game between normal and classic mode (classic mode simply removes the power-ups, but leaves the obstacles). These are all little easter eggs that add re-playability to the game and keep it from being monotonous.

All-in-all, Hyper Jump is a very fun game to play, probably my favorite if I had to choose. Honestly, I find myself playing it more than any other game, even Angry Birds. It's quick and easy, and never looses it's re-playability The developers are constantly adding customizations (characters, levels, and game modes) to it, which also extends the fun. For instance, in the settings menu there are always icons that say “Coming soon”, and thankfully Camel Games  understand the meaning of soon, unlike most other developers. For only $1.99 (the price has recently dropped and may go back up to $2.99 eventually), you can't possibly turn this game down. It's definitely worth it, but if you're not so sure about it, try out the lite version first. If you like it, I absolutely recommend supporting Camel Games, they've earned it.