Bouncing physics platformer Somersault springs onto iPhone

There are plenty of physics-based games that have you drawing lines on your touchscreen to bounce around objects. Graffiti Ball and Touch Physics are just two examples.

Somersault, from German start-up Enter Brain Ment extends the concept a lot further however.

Placed within five extraordinarily colourful worlds, you have to draw out a line, which becomes a 3D block (really a 2.5D block, because although the game has 3D graphics, the gameplay is 2D), which you use to bounce your game character around the levels. Neatly, the longer the block you draw, the more powerful the bounce.

This is displayed with dynamic arrows showing the trajectory your character will take when he hits the line, which provides you with a fair degree of control as you leap around, collecting gold coins, fighting machine-controlled enemies and overcoming bad bosses.

Previously released for PC and Mac, and developed using the Unity game engine, you can play the Somersault tutorial level online here, although Enter Brain Ment does point out that the iPhone version "is vastly improved on the artistic side and has a lot more gameplay mechanics".

High scores and achievements are handled using OpenFeint, and the games supports English, Spanish, German, French and Italian.

Somersault is out now, priced $5.99, €4.99 or £3.49.

You can get some idea of the gameplay in the following video.

Subscribe to Pocket Gamer on