iJacks available now!! iJacks

Legend

(a) Level Name:
  • one bounce
  • two bounces
  • no bounces
  • two hands
  • crack the eggs
  • pigs over the fence

(b) Round Number
"onesies" through "tensies"

(c) Round Info Button
tap this button to get a reminder of how to play the current round

(d) "Jacks in hand" Tray
Jacks that you have picked up while the ball is in the air move to this tray (they're in your hand). This tray turns green when you've picked up the correct number of jacks, depending on the round number (i.e. 1 for "onesies", 2 for "twosies", and so on).

(e) "Jacks in possession" Tray
When you catch the ball, jacks in your hand move to this tray. Each round continues until you've successfully picked up all 10 jacks.

(f) Ball Toss Direction
When you toss the ball, a faint line will appear to show you the angle of your toss. The straighter up the toss, the easier is it to catch the ball.

(g) Ball Target
The target serves three purposes:
  1. Tapping the target is how you catch the ball at any time. After you've picked up enough jacks and the ball has bounced enough times (depending on the round), you need to tap the target to catch the ball.
  2. The target also indicates the strength of your toss. It starts off gray, then fills in with color as the ball is flying through the air. If the target gets completely filled in before you catch the ball, then that means the toss was not a success and any jacks in your hand get put back on the ground.
  3. Finally, the color of the target tells you when the ball has bounced enough times to be caught, depending on the round. For the one bounce round, the target is red until the ball has bounced once - after a bounce the target turns green and you can catch the ball. For the two bounce round, the target fills in red until the ball bounces twice. For the no bounce round, the target immediately starts getted colored green - you can catch the ball immediately. All other rounds are "one bounce" rounds.

(h) Ball Airtime
This shows how many seconds the ball was in the air before its first bounce.

(i) Difficulty Indicator
This indicates the gesture you need to perform to pick up jacks:
  1. Touch: simply tap a jack to pick it up
  2. Pinch: put your index finger and your thumb on the screen, and pinch them together over a jack to pick it up
  3. Death Pinch: same as Pinch, except the jacks have spikes on the ends, so when you perform your pinch motion, you need to make sure not to pinch where the spikes are

Each difficulty settings also has a Black Widow option for advanced play. If at any point in a given round you do not successfully pick up the required number of jacks, you have to go back to onesies and start that round over. For example, if you're playing "no bounce eightsies" but you only pick up 7 jacks before the ball bounces, you go back to "no bounce onesies". This option can be infuriating, but is the sign of a true iJacks Master. Winning a Black Widow game is the only way to unlock the Black ball.

Hint: the Black Widow effect only applies if you actually start picking up jacks. If you toss the ball, and you realize it's going to go off the side of the screen, or it wasn't a high enough toss, just catch the ball before picking up any jack and you'll abort that toss without suffering the Black Widow penalty.

(j) Difficulty Info Button
tap this button to get a reminder of how to pick up jacks on the current difficulty setting