Hook Champ: Press Site

HOOK CHAMP: LIST OF FEATURES

Hook Champ is a physics platformer about using a grappling hook to swing through haunted ruins at high speeds. Highly replayable, with a retro style and the most hat fashion customization of any game on the market.

Easy to Learn Controls: Hold above your character's head to latch your hook onto surfaces, release to let go, hold below your character's head to walk in that direction.
High Scores: Every single level has a local and internet high score board. Compete with others and beat their scores and times! Beat the developer's high scores for bonus loot!
Character Upgrades and Collectibles: Spend treasure you get from picking up loot, completing levels, or beating high scores to upgrade your character and buy all new items.
Pick up and Play: After closing the app for any reason, simply tap the icon and then unpause the game to resume your game exactly where you left off.
Supports playing your own music! Play music from your own library, or use ours.
Fast load times: Detailed "Pixel graphics" technology allows the average load time to be about a second, on a 2G ipod touch. Why put up with long and frequent loading times?
Varied Levels: Each level has its own special challenges. Sink like a stone in Frog. Have your skeleton explode in flames in Bull. Learn why they call it the Bat temple, and more!
Unlock extra-difficult Challenge Level sets, with more coming soon in content patches!

Beat the Developer Scores to get a lot of bonus money for upgrades in the shop. This lets you keep your upgrades maxed.
The Loot Vacuum is a great upgrade to help you beat Developer Scores. I recommend two or three levels in it before delving far into the other upgrades.
If you get stuck, play similar levels for practice. If you need cash, play old levels, especially when you have not beaten a Developer Score.
Recommended level set order: Wimpy -> Monkey -> Bat -> Frog -> Bull. The game should get challenging midway through Frog.
My personal favorite upgrades for survival, in rough order: Rope, Hook, Rocketboots, Fuel, Shotgun. Some people place the Shotgun higher.
If you want to try the Skull levels, you'll need the following to survive the final level: Maxed Rope and Hook, Maxed Fuel (or one under max), maxed Rocketboots.
Feel the hook. Be the hook. Though controls are simple, they're nuanced. Mastering the hook physics will let you survive the final levels.

We're a small independent team of three people. This is our first major game. If you're reading this you're probably already going to review the game, so I can't scare you off.
Hook Champ is our experiment to see if a difficult precision-platformer can be pulled off smoothly for the iPhone.
Result: Yes, we think so.
We already mentioned the Challenge Level content packs. They'll tend to be easier than Skull in difficulty, a little higher than Bull. Some interesting new mechanics are planned.
If this game does well, the goal for our next game is to make an infinite adventure game. All competing games can then be safely deleted. More details to come later.
Big, extra impressive, Valve-with-TF2-style update, out now! More to come!