Fast-paced, simple to play, but incredibly addictive - all of these things can be said to describe Junction Action Arcade.
A mobile title from Argentinian two-man team Beavl, Junction Action Arcade - or JAA for short - was originally developed as an idea for a Game Jam. While the developers ultimately didn’t enter the competition, they kept working on the title for a few months, polishing up the mechanics and visuals, and released it on Android and iOS for public consumption.
The game tasks you with tapping shapes on the playing field in order to create an intersection matching the shaded area on display. Tap the correct shapes and another shaded area appears; tap the wrong ones, and you’re docked points and a chunk of time remaining on the clock. That clock ticks down fast, too - providing you with just a few seconds to decide which shapes to tap on. Get it right and your meter will refill slightly, and you’ll also gain a multiplier to your score.
As simple as it sounds in theory, in practice things soon get pretty frantic. More and more shapes are added to the playing field as time goes on, while the camera spins around, causing disorientation and making it difficult to identify which shapes you should be tapping on. Beavl describes the game as having “graphics that cause seizures”; thankfully that’s not 100% accurate, but the flashing colors, pixel explosions and spinning camera certainly will have you feeling a bit confused - but its intentional. The visuals are simple, and pleasingly retro, but it’s an attractive style that certainly works well. Combined with a pounding chiptune soundtrack, the result is a game that looks good and sounds even better.
With just three modes to play, there isn’t a whole lot of content on offer, but that doesn’t matter too much; each mode is different enough the others that it justifies its existence, and the addictive gameplay will have you going back for more. Things start off relatively simple with b/w mode, but before long you’ll have unlocked Power mode, which features power-ups that slow down time once triggered on the playing field, as well as screen-shaking explosions. Meanwhile, Cone mode ends the game immediately if you make a single mistake. Interestingly, the developer has promised to add 3 more modes if they reach 10,000 downloads - given how addictive the game is, it would be a shame if they didn’t reach that target.
Aside from the 3 modes, there are 40 achievements to unlock, as well as leaderboard support. While a large number of the achievements simply ask you to reach a certain score threshold in each mode, some of them display a bit more inventiveness - one tasks you with reaching a score of 1,000 without any power-ups - much harder than it sounds.
Junction Action Arcade is a game that gets you hooked early on and doesn’t want to let go. You’ll catchy yourself humming its tunes while making a cup of coffee, while the temptation to have one more try to see if you get can top your best score is certainly strong. For the price of $0.99/£0.69 on iOS, and as a free download on Android, it’s well worth the scant amount that Beavl asks you to part with for it.
Dale Morgan
@spamdangled
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