Go get your bubble gum. Warner Brother Games sends you soaring through the skies in AdvenChewers, an iOS coin collecting auto-scroller adventure game. It’s clever name and simple gameplay make it alluring to all, while it’s difficulty and level memorization aspects tag hours on to your initial play through.

In this side scrolling, touch to jump game – you play as the Kid, trying to rescue his nameless inventor father, with the help of a nameless phoenix and a bunch of special bubble gum. I smell a blockbuster movie in the making…

Lackluster story aside, the AdvenChewers is charming, fun and, in later levels, challenging – connecting to Facebook and inviting friends boosts replayability as you try to best their scores. Enemies and obstacles are scripted, making memorizing the levels the most effective way to get top scores by collecting the most coins.

Controls are simple, touch to jump, hold to blow a bubble and fly. Special bubble gum can be equipped to help you get through sticky situations (you knew that was coming). Each gum has it’s own ability, like freezing enemies or an electrical area attack that clears anything in your path. While you can make it through the game without special gum, it’s much easier with it. More gum can be purchased using in-game money, awarded for finishing levels – and of course, you can buy more in-game money using real money. There’s no explanation as to how the Kid is able to chew a mouthful of electrified or even spiked gum, but then again, you have a phoenix as a pet.

The phoenix, which I’ve been affectionately calling Frankie, is an invincibility pickup in each level – find Frankie’s feather in each level and she’ll (yes, a girl phoenix named Frankie) show up to give you a free ride toward the finish, smashing through everything with impunity.

Like most mobile games, AdvenChewers has a 3 star rating system, however, developer Sarbakan has done something a bit more interesting than basing stars on your final score. In each level, there are bird pickups (Feathered Friends), that not only act as your star rating, but also give you an extra life in the level. The birds follow you through the level, and have your back if you get hit – swooping down to save you from falling into the abyss. That hit will cost you though, for each save a bird makes, you lose a star, so the only way to obtain a 3 star rank is by running a flawless level and collecting 3 birds along the way. To progress through the worlds, you’ll need to accumulate a specific number of stars, so going back to earlier levels to collect their birds will become the norm.

AdvenChewers hits the mark in fun and playability, the addition of competitive play with Facebook friends and it’s steady learning curve, make it a great game whether you only have a few minutes to kill, or up to a few hours. I would have liked to see more thought put into the story, nameless inventor kidnapped to make war machines, recused by ‘the Kid” is pretty weak – then again, not too long ago some pigs stole a few eggs, and now we have Darth Oinker and Emperor Porkpatine. At $0.99, AdvenChewers is worth the cost of admission.

The Good
Fun, simple gameplay, that steadily increases difficulty
Charming art and graphics
Not a Pay-to-Win game, but if you want to beat your friends…

The Bad
Story took a back seat to gameplay

The Ugly
The number of invites you’re going to receive from your friends