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Hook Champ is fucking awesome. If you have an iPod Touch or an iPhone, and you don’t have this game? I will probably punch you. Just saying.
Seriously.
A punch.
Likely to the face.

Okay, I guess I could tell you why, huh.
Here are a list of reasons why Hook Champ is one of the best iPhone games out there.

Reason 1: It’s got fantastic retro styles. I mean, just look at a screenshot or anything. Immediately you will say “Spelunky.” It just looks fantastic, and yet has enough detail that, when you buy a million different hats for Jake, the main character, you can clearly see what he’s wearing. It’s gorgeous.

Reason 2: It contains much humor. Now, Hook Champ is an action game, and you wouldn’t expect a lot of humor, but man, there is a lot of it in there! Before every level, it throws you two quick lines, easily skippable, but they tend to be very funny, and there are so many of them that you’ll still be seeing new ones even after several deaths on a level. The shopkeeper descriptions of upgrade items are equally entertaining. A small example: “Husk Musk Lv. 3: Women will crash into you at high speeds. Also, bats.”

Reason 3: It’s built from the ground up for the iPhone. Seriously, the controls are extremely simple, which is exactly what this game needs. Tap 3/4ths of the screen? Throw your grappling hook. Tap the bottom fourth? Walk forward. There are big buttons for the rarely and situationally-used Shotgun and Rocketboots, too, which are no problem to hit. It controls precisely, which is great, due to reason 5.

Reason 4: It’s got a great upgrade system. It’s always good to see a character improve, and the upgrade system in this game is balanced extremely well, at least to me. Every time you beat a level, there’s probably some upgrade you can unlock afterwards. The cost scales, but so do the number of times you have to try the level, and thus pick up extra loot, each time due to the difficulty. As such, I’ve almost always had something useful to unlock any time I went to the store, and that just feels fantastic. I’ve never had to grind for an item so far. Perhaps I’ll have to for the Max Level items, but at that point, I’m probably going to have to be grinding away at beating the hardest levels anyway, so I have no problem with that.

Reason 5: The game is old school hardcore and challenging, but not in a cheap way. Like the best action games, every time you die, you realize it was your fault, and that had you just thrown your hook a little earlier, or released it a little later, or deployed your Rockeboots right then, you would have made it. At the same time, every death makes you better at the course, and makes you feel like you can get farther next time, and you get to keep the loot you picked up, even when you die, so if nothing else, you’re working towards upgrades to make the level easier. I spent an entire day basically doing nothing but playing Hook Champ, only taking breaks to charge my iPod. It’s addicting in a really good way, and that’s because of the challenge and “one more try” mentality it puts on you.

Watch some videos of the game in action. Be convinced, and then BUY THIS GAME. It is so, so good. You won’t regret it.