Bridgy Jones app review

Not groundbreaking, but fun enough if you persevere.

Casual gaming already has its Mario, Lara Croft and Master Chief in the forms of Angry Birds and Om Nom. Can the eponymous train-driving hillbilly star of Bridgy Jones capture imaginations around the globe too? Not really, no.

The object of the game is to create structures that help move Bridgy’s train across the screen while skirting disaster. It’s simple enough to grasp the controls. Tap the construction menu to select tracks, planks and ropes to build with. Drag and drop these elements to place them where you want in the level. Hold the saw button with one finger and swipe Fruit-Ninja-style with the other to remove pieces you’ve used. Press the button in the top-right corner to switch menus and move Bridgy’s train and carriages forward or backward along the track, and press it again to return to build mode. So far, so jim dandy.

Here’s the thing about Bridgy Jones: it’s not very fun. Take the standard three-star-per-stage gameplay of virtually every hit iOS and Android game, vary the levels a bit and add wacky characters and music. Surely that’s the formula for some hit mobile gaming? Yet, unlike the sublime and nail-biting physics of Angry Birds or Cut the Rope that make every stage addictive, Bridgy Jones feels as flat as a railroad.

Maybe it’s the seemingly endless tutorial chapter that ramps the difficulty up to 11 almost straight away. Casual gaming is all about flattering the player’s intelligence just enough while trying not to infuriate them to the point where they close the app for good, but Bridgy Jones doesn’t ease into the driver’s seat. Heaping four different achievements to unlock in each stage on top of the three-star scoring system doesn’t help, as you’ll have a hard time grabbing them all in one attempt at finishing a stage. Once a stage is over there’s not really any point in going back to do it any better, which leaves the whole experience feeling incomplete.

Bridgy Jones crash — Bridgy’s train is both gnarly and totally radical.

The construction gameplay of Bridgy Jones isn’t original. Some pretty compelling games like World of Goo, Dummy Defense and Rovio’s Bad Piggies have used the formula to good effect before, and haven’t limited players to laying train tracks. Once you’ve built one bridge you’ve built them all, no matter how big or small the required structure might be. Bridgy Jones’ physics work fine, with boxes toppling off carriages going up steep inclines and tracks crumbling underneath Bridgy’s heavy train. Fans of Burnout who somehow find themselves holding an iPhone will probably have more fun ploughing Bridgy straight down into a huge chasm rather than build a strong track for him to cross safely.

Bridgy Jones’ muddy, repetitive backgrounds and endlessly looped bluegrass soundtrack won’t win it any friends. Chillingo and developers Grow App have given creating an interesting new character a try, but Bridgy and his weird little dog turned out creepy instead. Clad in familiar dungarees, red shirt, cap and facial hair, there’s something disturbingly Mario-meets-Deliverance about Bridgy. Let’s not even start on the dog. They’re more Ren & Stimpy or Rocko’s Modern Life than Sonic the Hedgehog or Angry Birds. One evening, our iPad sounded with a loud, gibberish notification from Bridgy that startled an entire room of people into thinking someone had broken in.

Bridgy Jones is a reasonably entertaining and challenging casual game for your smartphone or tablet. It just doesn’t do much new, and the choice of style doesn’t achieve what it set out to. Your mileage may vary.