By: Dylan Lepore | @dylanslegos

Simple. Fun. Easy. Clean. And no automated ads. Just Like A Giraffe!

What more could you ask for from a mobile game.

Like A Giraffe brings inviting heart and warmth to the App Store using mechanics you might expect from a rhythm game, like Guitar Hero, and from a classic arcade air shooter, such as 1945 Air Force.

Simple

The game is simple: hold your finger on the giraffe while sliding your finger horizontally to catch incoming music notes, which increases the length of the animal's neck. 

The goal is to make your animal's neck as long as possible to beat your best score while also competing with other players online through the in-game leaderboards.

One original song, of currently three of your choosing, plays throughout the entire game and increases speed by .2 each time the song restarts, with each song having its own leaderboard and difficulty.

The songs are catchy and will be stuck in your head. A benefit to this is that the same song plays on repeat each game, which helps you memorize where notes fall without thinking about it when the music speeds up.

Achievements are in Like A Giraffe; however, you won't get a notification when you surpass one in-game. To earn all 10 achievements, score over 2,500 points in one game, as they all are score based milestones.

It's OK Not to be OK

For each new game, you have two lives, and then you are done. Sometimes it's great to be cheered on even when you mess up; Like A Giraffe encourages you to keep going saying "It's OK Not to be OK" and "Just Beginning." Even when you don't hit a music note perfectly, it says "awesome," "incredible," and "splendid" instead of its default "perfect."

Like A Giraffe implores you to play, waste time, and have fun at no cost to you. The app contains no ads that automatically pop up; only those you are willing to watch for coins.

Coins can not be bought - so you earn coins by playing the game or watching ads to gain 1,000 coins, with no daily limit to how many ads you can watch.

Coins are used to unlock songs and five other skins/animals such as a dinosaur, snail, ostrich, camel, alpaca, and a llama (currently free to all players).

Each skin also comes with its own theme, which changes the game's colors and music notes. Skins can be changed in the home menu or by pausing while in-game.

Unlocking all of Like A Giraffe's collectibles is easy, taking me only a few hours as the game provides you a generous amount of coins based on how many points you score each game; however, that time can be significantly decreased if you spend the necessary time to watch ads. But you might find yourself with a ton of coins and nothing to use them on in-game.

The Verdict

Like A Giraffe is not that exciting of a game, nor is it Collect-A-Thon with ads every 30 seconds, but it is fun, genuine, extremely replayable, makes you smile, and is a bit challenging. Like A Giraffe is developer Hyun-Joong Kim's (@super_toki) first significant hit on the App Store and is a step in the right direction, as this is how games on your phone should be played. Future features and improvements will benefit Like A Giraffe; however, in its current state, the game is a heck of a lot of fun on its own ... just Like A Giraffe.

8/10 - Great

Like A Giraffe

Release date: October 2020

Platform(s): Apple mobile devices

Published and Developed: Hyun-Joong Kim (@super_toki)