"Finally a beautiful, fun, frustratingly rewarding trampoline game for the iOS!" began the email from developer Joel Blanco Berg, at which point I stopped and thought about how the use of finally suggests someone was desperately waiting for a trampoline game to come out. Then I watched the trailer for Bouncy!, and realized that maybe I was and just never knew it.
Bouncy!, due out tomorrow for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, is destined for greatness. It's the sort of simple, addictive little mobile game that gets under your skin. Is it the responsive touch or slide-based controls? The single screen gameplay? The fluid animation? The blood of a cartoon rabbit spattering across the nylon surface of the trampoline with a satisfying "splut" noise? The primal joy of bouncing?
It is all of these things. It's an exercise in compressed entertainment, the distillation of everything fun into one single mechanic, contained within the crisp lines of Scandinavian style. It's the Ikea of rabbit trampoline games. My only regret is that it doesn't hit the app store until tomorrow, so you'll have to wait to experience its greatness.
I feel horrible for ever doubting Joel Blanco Berg and Johan Sjöberg of MonoGames. I just hope they take solace in the fact that many of the greatest inventions in human history were laughed about to wives by jaded writers over breakfast.