A refreshing style and unique gameplay.
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity (now refered to as Aaaaa!) is a new game from Dejobaan where you do one simple thing: Jump off high places and get points. There are a variety of ways and actions you can take while doing this, but the goal is simple: Jump, and get lots and lots of points.
The gameplay is unique, and what you would expect from an indie game. At the beginning of each stage (there are 80 in the whole game), you are put at the top of a skyscraper/mountain/whatever. You then run forward, and the stage begins. Various structures and buildings are placed in your way as you fall, with you performing stunts around these along the way. You can flip off protestors, appeal to your fans, and spray graffiti on the side of buildings. While these are fun distractions, the main thing you will focus on is trying to manuver around these archetectures, getting near and around them for massive points.
The levels all have a sense of variety to them. There's a level where you jump off a windy mountain, dodge speeding futuristic cars a la Anakin Skywalker in SW: Episode II, and another where you weave around a string of score plates (small plates that if you hit, you get points, and are labeled according to how many points you get). They all look and sound great, keeping a consistent futuristic neon-isc feel while being different every time. The soundtrack features a good variety of rock music that fits the feel of the game.
The progression is well made, with sort of a map where if you complete levels, you can unlock the level next to it for a certain amount of 'teeth'. Teeth are earned by completing levels, the better your score, the more teeth you get. You can also unlock new items (such as the Flip-It glove, allowing you to flip off protesters or appeal to fans) and videos. These videos are what makes half of the game so cool, as they're often so blatanly random and insensible that you can't help but laugh. One of the first videos is about a Grandma who bakes cookies out of the ashes of people who have died in jumps (known as Jumpers) while two other people are running around in the background looking for her. It's things like this that give Aaaaa! its own unique style.
While Aaaaa! doesn't present itself as a game that will last forever, it certainly is an experience that is worth spending some time and money for. It is a game that has a nice style to it, with gameplay that wraps up the package well.
