Sleepy Jack

Summary

This game's narrative is really ace: Sleepy Jack is about a little boy who is dreaming, and in his dreams he faces all sorts of opponents that are all toys. The little boy must defend himself against these toy opponents, but he must not wake up whilst doing so.

This kid has some imagination—read on to find out whether the game is just as fun as its premise.

Test device: Samsung Galaxy Nexus
Android version: 4.0.1
Mods: Root
Size: 22 MB

Sleepy Jack flies through different worlds along a tunnel that's riddled with dangers and obstacles.
Let's take the Space World as an example: here you must defend yourself (in the role of Jack) against galactic enemies bearing laser guns and other weapons by using toy guns. Charge your weapon in order to shoot several opponents at once.

Collect objects along the way and get bonuses such as a better laser to wipe your enemies out with. There's also a cool freeze bomb that will slow your enemies down.
Collect the 'Z's in order not to wake up—collect whole rows of them and win extra points. Should you find the pace to hectic you can resort to doing so-called Barrel Rolls—they make time pass a bit slower for a moment.
Every time you sleep status bar is at 0 you can check yourself into one of the sleep checkpoints.

In order to complete each level you must shoot down the big alarm clock so as to wake up (a commentary about what weekday mornings are like for many of us?).
Once that's done you can check your game stats which include your score, the number of 'Z's you collected and in how much time you were able to complete the level.
High scores are located on the left of each category.
Levels can be repeated in order to garner more points.

Every now and then you will play a Music Level in which you sit atop a sort of aircraft that's equipped with two huge speakers. The goal is to collect as many music notes as possible. When you don't collect any notes the background music stops and you lose a life.
I noticed a small problem here: seeing as this is the type of level in which there's no shooting or stressful action the display keeps getting dark. That's silly if you ask me—with this type of game the display should really remain lit up permanently.

There are 40 levels in different worlds in total.
Share your scores on Facebook; OpenFeint is also integrated into the game enabling you to compare scores with friends. That said, OpenFeint didn't work every time I tried to access it.

Bottom line:

Sleepy Jack is a game that shines with lovely, playful graphics and a cute narrative. The music adds a nice note, if you'll forgive the silly pun. It's a great game for children, but adults will enjoy it, too. It actually reminds me of SpeedX 3D.
Aside from the slight OpenFeint glitch I didn't experience any trouble with this app.
 

There are three control modes for Sleepy Jack: a classic variant using an analogue stick and shooter button, slide control or an acceleration sensor. I'm most partial to the third option in which you tap the screen in order to shoot a round.
The game's graphics aren't quite in the same league as Shadowgun, but they are very nicely done and compliment the mood and narrative.

Sleepy Jack runs very well indeed, even on less powerful Android devices, seeing as graphics are adaptable. Listen up and take note, Android 3D games, let Sleepy Jack serve as an example!

Sleepy Jack is available for 1,99$/1,50 €, which strikes me as a fair price seeing as the game is really lots of fun.