I wound up skipping out on this when it was first released because it looked a little to directed towards children... but then I saw it re-released and on sale and the graphic style got me, so I figured that I'd at least have something eye-catching to play through if I wound up not enjoying it. Now, half way through the first world, I'm kicking myself for not buying it years ago.
Yes, it is a game that children can enjoy. However, it's also a game that any gamer who's into side-scrolling exploration/collectible games would enjoy - and while you're going after each of the 4 types of items in each stage (coins, 5 triangle things, letters that spell out Heroki and the special chest) trying to get perfect scores for each stage; you'll also have to knock out more enemies which, while you'll most likely never get hit enough times to drain all of your HP (it's fairly plentiful - especially if you use all of the HP boxes to attack the enemies and get lucky with the end stage rewards), giving yourself a personal 'never loose HP' goal to try and aim for can add just enough challenge to keep even veteran gamers interested.
There's 3 different control schemes (virtual joystick, follow where your finger is or use your finger to 'push' Heroki around [which, if you're looking for some added engagement, this is the scheme I'd recommend - and so do the devs!], GC leaderboards for total score as well as for each total world score (there's 3 worlds, so 4 leaderboards total), and a few achievements. There's not really any replay-ability here, unless you're into speed running (I imagine this would be a nice little addition to any speedrunner's catalog), but it's looking like there's definitely enough content here to keep you busy for at least 5-8 hours (depending on how determined you are to collect everything)-from what I've read, some of the stages are fairly large and there are no 'bite sized' stages that I've seen yet. The level design is absolutely TOP-NOTCH, and of course, graphically, it's simply BEAUTIFUL.
And since it was originally released back in 2016, it plays buttery smooth (I'm playing on a 6S, but I think I remember reading that it played great on a 5 years ago, so new phones will have no issues with crashing or stuttering.
It's clear that the developers put a TON of time, testing and care into each and every aspect of this game; it jumps out of the screen and *HUG ATTACK!!!*
=D
I'd totally recommend it to anyone looking for a side-scroller to get into, especially if you're looking for something to renew your appreciation for the AppStore or bring back your lost love of iOS gaming, because this is a game that can remind you exactly why people who bash iPhone/mobile gaming deserve nothing but an eye-rolling smirk.