AirBear, a new game released by Origin8, looks to improve on the many “bounce upward” games already in the App Store. It is polished, fully featured, and has a unique twist: you draw the platforms.

There are two game types: Upward Bound and Downward Bound. Up is the main mode, where you draw trampolines that bounce the panda higher and higher into the air. The trampolines can’t be stretched too wide or they will break, requiring strategic placement. Also, you have to collect bamboo rings on your way up, which maintains your supply of trampolines. Bombs are scattered in levels as well, requiring short, careful bursts of momentum often at odd angles. If you hit these bombs, your limbs get blown off, one by one, although you can regenerate them by collecting 15 rings. If you run out of limbs, it’s game over.

Downward Bound asks you to steer downward by tilting your phone. You can also tap the panda’s head to activate a propeller hat, slowing your descent. Your goal is to land gently on a (fixed) trampoline on the bottom. In both modes, you also collect golden puzzle pieces -- they have to be hit once, and then collected as they drop downwards. These puzzle pieces aren’t optional: they unlock additional levels and are useful in structuring the game. The levels are unlocked with different areas and obstacles, acting as a sort of Story Mode.

If that’s not quite your thing, there’s also an Endless Mode where you can bounce higher and higher for a score. AirBear is hooked into the social gaming system OpenFeint, letting players compare scores and receive achievements.

The gameplay is quite good, and the presentation appropriately happy and colorful. We remain a little iffy about collecting those puzzle pieces: they’re a little too fiddly and hard to get. If they were attracted to the panda when you get near them, that would alleviate a lot of the frustration. Also, having to tap the panda’s head to start the propeller is unintuitive when there is a propeller icon on the screen. We tapped the icon several times before realizing we were hitting the wrong thing, leading us to suspect many players will share the same confusion.

Those few nitpicks aside, AirBear is a solid game, with plenty of replay value and unlockables. we do wish the game played faster, for on-the-go gaming, but Origin8 thoughtfully included a pause button.

AirBear gets our AppSmile 4-Dimple rating: