PixlBit

The App Store has plenty of runners—too many, even—so I understand your skepticism when I tell you that this review is about another one, free-to-play to boot. But Adventure Beaks manages to sidestep many of the genres problems and present a compelling, well, adventure.

Adventure Beaks is not an endless runner, which I think is a point in its favor, but is divided into distinct levels. Your elite group of adventurous penguins can double jump, dive, and slide, not to mention swim, in their quest to recover ancient artifacts. Each level contains eight artifact cubes (which combine into a large artifact cube) as well as coins and treasure chests and the letters that spell BONUS. You don’t have to collect anything to beat a level, just get to the finish, but you will occasionally reach a gate on the world map that requires a certain number of completed artifacts to pass. The level design is a real standout feature of the game. There are multiple paths through each level and you’ll need to use them if you want to collect all the artifact pieces. You’ll have to play the levels multiple times but you won’t mind much thanks to the excellent design and responsive controls. Plus each level has five checkpoints. Anything you’ve collected to that point is saved even if you die, which really helps mitigate frustration. If you lose all your penguins, though, you have to start over. You can spend the coins you collect outfitting your penguins, and the treasure chests contain gems (which convert into coins), keys to open up alternate paths in the levels, or pieces to dress up your penguins with. If you collect all the BONUS letters in a run, then you get to spin a prize well at the end. One last thing. There are consumable power ups you can find in the levels: A radar to help find collectables, a magnet to help draw coins and collectables in, and invincibility from enemies.

Once you complete the artifact for a level, three missions open for the level. This is the game’s obligatory three star system. Missions differ level to level but all fall under a few major categories, like not losing any penguins, collecting all the BONUS letters, and getting a certain number of coins. Sometimes something more interesting will pop up, like not touching the water. There are a few annoyances with the missions though. You must do them in order. The second mission doesn’t open till you finish the first, for instance. And you must do them individually. The missions for the first level task you with beating the level without dying, collecting BONUS, and nabbing at least 100 coins. You can easily do that in one run but you’ll have to play it three times to get all the stars. Later levels are much trickier, of course, but it would have been nice to have all the missions available to you at once as well as doable at once. The lack of Game Center support is also disappointing.

Even if you don’t shoot for the stars, Adventure Beaks offers plenty of content with two worlds (arctic and jungle) of twenty-five levels each. Should you make it through all that (by the time you even make it to the jungle, some of the level designs are downright devious), there are a number of challenge levels spread across each world that reward you with a specific costume piece and a construction sign at the end of the jungle that points to more levels coming. Adventure Beaks offers enough content for a paid game.

That brings us to the giant walrus in the room: IAP. Let me first mention that Adventure Beaks features a lot of pop up ads. Between levels and every time you pause, an ad will pop up. It’s annoying but they pop up quickly and can be dismissed quickly. And there is IAP as well. For $4.99 you can double your penguins from five to ten, which really helps with the more difficult later levels. Plus that’s five more penguins to dress up with funny hats or mustaches or football pads or whatever else you happen across in your adventures. You can also buy consumable continue tokens that will restore your penguins and keep you at your current check point. You can buy coin packs in various denominations as well as a complete outfit for 99 cents that changes each day. The best part about all this is that any purchase will disable the ads, so double your penguins and voila, it’s basically a premium game.

The graphics are nicely detailed, both in the 3D character models and the static backgrounds. There are gobs of different pieces to outfit your penguins with and everything looks suitably different. You can also individually name your penguins and the whole team (my Tuxedo Ninjas fear no one). The one synth-heavy song that plays during the levels manages to be upbeat and catchy without becoming annoying, which is a feat in and of itself.

Adventure Beaks has the heart of a platformer, not a runner. The entire adventure is available for free and the fair IAP system lets you turn it into a premium game if you want. There is no reason not to give it a try, unless you’re more chicken than penguin, I suppose.

Verdict: Four-and-a-half stars