Jetpack Joyride - Halfbrick Studios

This review of Jetpack Joyride was completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 26 March 2019.

About the app

This section contains details about the app provided by an ACCM Reviewer.

ACCM review

This review of Jetpack Joyride contains the following information:

• The level to which the game was reviewed
• App description
• Reviewers comments
• In App purchasing
• Online information
• Gambling
• Advertising and product placement
• Gender stereotypes and sexual references
• Coarse language
• Game playing behaviour which may be of concern to some parents
• Other

The level to which the game was reviewed

Our Reviewer played the game for several hours.

App description

In Jetpack Joyride, players control “Barry” – a covert agent looking man with a jet pack – through a continuous platform of on-coming obstacles. Movement forward is automatic; hence all players have to do is press and hold on screen to move up and let go to move down. Coins can be collected along the way which can be used to unlock features such as skins, jet packs and special power-ups (e.g. boosts, shields, rocket time, etc.). Also, there are icons in-game which can be collected which unlock certain similar features. The aim of the game is to travel as far as possible without dying.

Reviewers comments

There are a few common things that parents need to be diligent about in this game: connects to social media platforms (Facebook and Reddit), has quite a lot of ads which earn rewards from watching, and there are a lot of opportunities for in-app purchasing. Most importantly, parents need to be aware that the game has a slot machine feature – which appears at the end of every game played. The number of spins is determined by how many spin icons are collected during the jetpack part of the game. So, spins cannot be purchased with real money. However, on the slot machine screen, you can opt to “cash in” your spin tokens (1 spin token = 50 coins) instead of using them to spin. So, this does place value on the tokens (even if that value is not real-world currency based) and hence using the tokens to spin does represent a “risk for reward” style of behaviour which is similar to gambling.

In App purchasing

There is In-App purchasing in this game, examples include:

• Coin Booster Pack (20,000) $3.99
• Coin Ultra Pack (100,000) $9.99
• Coin Doubler $8.99
• Coin Mega Pack (50,000) $6.99
• Coin Barry Pack (250,000) $14.99
• Coin Ultimate Pack (1,000,000) $46.99
• S.A.M. Mystery Reward $3.99
• Starter Pack $0.99
• Sleigh of Awesome $8.99
• Fistful of Coins $1.49

Online information

This game connects easily to social media, such as Facebook and Reddit.

Gambling

There is some gambling elements in this game, for example:

• A slot machine feature appears at the end of each game which utilises risk for reward type of behaviour.

Advertising and product placement

There is a lot of advertising in this game, including:

• Rewards earned for watching ads as they pop up.

Gender stereotypes and sexual references

• There are many different versions of “Barry” to choose, and although one has a dress and another has make-up, none appear to be female.

Coarse language

• None noted.

Game playing behaviour which may be of concern to some parents

See Reviewer's comments above.

Other

N/A.

Got a suggestion?

You can contact us if you have suggestions of other children's apps to review.