On iOS, you’ve got your auto-scrolling runners, fairly straightforward affairs that require careful tapping to avoid oncoming obstacles. Decent enough in bursts, games in this genre tend to suffer from uniformity. You’ve also got more traditional platformers, which do their best to replicate standard controls using only touch commands. They are functional at times, but it’s quite frustrating when your input fails to register.
This Could Hurt, developed by Orange Agenda and published by Chillingo, is something of a marriage of both auto-scrollers and typical platformers. There are 40 isometric levels replete with twists, turns, ladders, and pitfalls, and your avatar just traipses along through automatically. To stop walking, you simply tap and hold the screen, timing your pauses perfectly to avoid spike traps, buzz saws, flame jets, swinging mallets, and more. You earn badges by avoiding damage or clearing a level under a time limit, and you can purchase single-use items to make the journey a little less hazardous.
There’s certainly nothing new about This Could Hurt, but the simple change in perspective provides a fresh outlook. Plus, each level is short enough that restarting a run never makes you feel like you’ve wasted your time. You get a nice dose of challenge without any excessive penalties. For $0.99, it’s not bad at all!
