Super Twario by Head First Communications is the first mashup of its kind that I know of. The developers have taken the popularity of Twitter and combined it with an old school retro platformer. This is an unheard of idea and the fact that it even exists makes my head explode with excitement. I would consider myself a pretty hardcore Twitter user. I use it daily to catch up with up to the minute news, see what my friends are up to, and use it as networking and communications tool to share information with others.

Twitter however can be quite boring, especially if you are just reading countless lines of  status updates all day.  Super Twario looks to change that by making Twitter into a bit of a game where you can earn points and achievements.

Super Twario plays out like a retro side-scroller.  Tweets are shown as elevated platforms and profile images are treated like blocks that you can jump up and hit. Hitting a block activates the pop-up for replaying to someone. If you want to retweet something, you would double tap the platform. You however can not DM someone with this app and you can only view basic profile information. From a Twitter standpoint, the app is pretty basic, but then again the concept itself is suppose to be a more casual approach to Twitter in my opinion. One that tries to simplify Twitter down to its basic elements and that’s not such a bad thing especially if you are trying to make Twitter seem more accessible.

The game element of Super Twario is pretty basic as well. It’s a basic side-scroller where you just jump and hit blocks with your head. It is a really cool way to view Twitter however and one that again is completely different from anything you’ve ever seen before.  I do wish however that there was more of the gaming element in it meaning I wish there were enemies around that I could stomp to make it more game-like.

Final Thoughts

Super Twario by Head First Communications is definitely an idea that I had never seen before nor even thought of mashing together. Who ever would have thought about mashing Twitter updates with a simple side scrolling platformer is a pure genius and should get a raise immediately. Super Twario does make reading tweets fun in a way but I don’t really recommend it for power users as reading tweets this way is quite slow especially if you are following hundreds of users. However it is fun for just casual browsing when you kind of just want to see whats going on in Twitter world.

There are some additions I would love to see in Super Twario if the devs are willing to take suggestions. I’d love to see power ups as well as the inclusion of random enemies to stomp. Even though they might not really do anything in Twitter itself but it would be a fun addition to make the world even more game-like. I’d also maybe like to see multilevel platforms based on the timestamp of each tweet just to give the level a bit more variety and make the level larger overall. I’d also like to see them add a few more functions on the Twitter side, mainly the ability to DM someone and also to retweet the new way. Other than that, it’s a fantastic app that is very different from every single other Twitter app out there. It really stands out and I hope Head First Communications will do more with it and new features to it on a regular basis.

It is a keeper though and I’ll definitely be using this as an alternative source for Twitter.

You can purchase Super Twario in the App Store right now for $1.99 for the iPhone and iPod Touch only.

Rating: B [but with a bit of work, it can be a solid A]