How many games are there on the iPhone that are capable of reminding you of artists such as Michel Gondry or Daniel Johnston?
In the case of the latter, there’s Hi, How Are You, a funny looking, artsy, 3D platformer that wouldn’t look out of place from one of the former’s TV advertisements. Some of you might even find one of the game’s protagonists to be a little familiar.
That because it’s Jeremiah the Innocent, a cartoon (for lack of a better word) frog drawn by Daniel Johnston as a mural on the side of the South Exchange in Austin, Texas. And like that weird looking character, the rest of the game takes up the weird, surreal, psychedelic even, look in earnest.
The game’s storyline is classic Super Mario-ish. Guy meets girl, the two fall in love, girl gets kidnap by Bowse.. I mean, the Devil and guy gets transformed into a frog by said Devil, before setting out to rescue the girl.
Each level has the same objective, whereby players are supposed to use a combination of tilting the iPhone and arrow keys to move about and making sure every green tile is touched. Populating each level are enemies, some are static, and some move about, like rolling blocks to blocks that spawn arms and legs (and pointy-nosed faces) before walking about.
Heh, it takes a certain level of imagination to come up with such characters, but they certainly suit the premise of the game. Drawn in a cel-shaded style, the game’s 3D presentation is one of the more brilliant things I’ve seen on the iPhone, a breath of fresh air in the choking glut of 2D graphics.
Occasionally, players will come across puzzles that require them to push blocks in order to get to higher places. I like the fact that this breaks the monotony of just having to touch every single green tile but this is also when the controls become a little of a let-down. I had some trouble pushing stuff around.
That little niggle aside, Hi, How Are You is pretty much something to experience on the iPhone, or anywhere else for that matter, should the developer introduce the game to other platforms. At 99 cents it certainly has plenty of things going for it, especially artistically where it’s without peer on the iPhone.
Check it out for an artistic gaming experience by downloading the game from the App Store (click here).
