Developer: Snowman
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0.0
Device Reviewed On: iPhone 5

Graphics / Sound Rating: ?????
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Overall Rating: ?????

'Just one more go' is a pretty good thing to think while playing a game, even if it's hardly conducive to your productivity. That's been the case for me with Alto's Adventure, as I find myself having 'just one more go' to double check something before writing this. It's an endless runner (something that shouldn't hook anyone so easily these days), but it’s also a fine example of the genre. We're talking borderline Tiny Wings levels of fun here.

alto7It helps a lot that Alto's Adventure is gorgeous to look at. It's relatively simple looking at first glance but that hides some beautiful little touches. Most notable of all is how things change depending on if it's day or night in the game. It's thoroughly delightful, with the only real issue being that rocks can be hard to see when it's dark.

Playing Alto's Adventure is a matter of tapping at the right moment to jump or holding in order to perform a trick. Tricks are fairly basic but that doesn't mean they're easy to perform – certainly not when dealing with the first character early on. It's satisfying to perform some combos by stringing together moves and grinding from bunting to bunting, but don't expect to perform wonders right away.

alto3The real magic unlocks with a new character after you've completed a sufficient number of missions, which is going to take you some time. Along the way you find your own skills improving, ensuring that Alto's Adventure offers a pretty fair learning curve. More indication as to when new characters are unlocked would have been helpful here though, giving you extra impetus to keep playing.

Upgrades are fairly simple, with power-up boosts forming the majority here along with a wing suit that's expensive but not entirely satisfying to use. Instead, Alto's Adventure is more about the journey and simple exploration. It achieves such serene fun very well, and it's sure to be a game you'll keep coming back for more, for a while to come.