Scarygirl
Score: 86% ESRB: Everyone 10+ Publisher: Square Enix Developer: TikGames Media: Download/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Platformer/ Action/ Family
Graphics & Sound: Our first thought after booting up Scarygirl was that it reminded us of an old favorite, Klonoa. That PSOne classic was recently revamped for the Wii, and remains one of the more underrated Platformers on any home console. The defining element of Klonoa was its great visuals, with special attention paid to creating a game world that pulled you in through color and interesting use of 2D and 3D perspectives. Scarygirl has the same blend of flat illustration and 3D animation throughout, making it feel like a pop-out storybook you control. The illustration talents of Nathan Jurevicius - creator of the Scarygirl character - are very much evident in the translation to Xbox 360. This property made a great Flash game, still playable on the Scarygirl website, so you can imagine how much more is possible through the console version. Another similarity or precedent we saw in Scarygirl is the fantastic (we mean that as broadly as possibly) art style of Jim Woodring. His character Frank could pop into the world of Scarygirl at any time and not seem one bit out of place. Woodring always finds ways to maintain an illustration style that is simultaneously bright and colorful, full of organic shapes, unsettling, and completely alien. Jurevicius clearly has the same talent for depicting Scarygirl and her surroundings in some very creative ways. A good videogame analogue would be Abe's Oddysee and the Oddworld universe. Scarygirl complements interesting visuals with some great music and sound effects, really original stuff that sounds more like an interesting film score than the usual bleep-bloop claptrap.
Gameplay: We've had no lack of good platforming games lately , but Scarygirl is a standout for a few reasons. The unique look and feel of the game, as mentioned earlier, is supported by some equally unique gameplay. Scarygirl as a character supports the same kind of actions that you see in most titles in this genre, but she can be upgraded with purchases throughout the game. Her main actions are to swipe enemies, but with new attack combos you can modify her attack to include things like health regeneration or vaulting off enemies to new heights. You can also buy new attachments for Scarygirl that give her useful abilities. We're reminded of the way Castle Crashers used upgrades, items, and pets to maintain a sense of constant expansion and discovery. The option to play with a friend makes Scarygirl that much better, and there are plenty of areas in the game where it helps to have a wing-man. As you play through the story, you'll be graded on completion, so it makes sense to replay and find the hidden secrets or explore branching paths you may have missed the first time. The branching paths are especially nice to see in a genre that is often all too linear. Levels are generally compact enough, but we wished for an autosave/checkpoint system that would allow you to leave the game and return mid-level instead of having to replay from the beginning. This leads to some discussion of what is most likely to be the most divisive element of the Scarygirl game.
Difficulty: In a word, it's hard. We grew up on old-school Platformers, so we're not fazed, but we recognize that some players will find Scarygirl daunting. In the early levels, you are introduced to how Scarygirl can attack and defend, learning the ins and outs of combat and handling enemies. Movement around the game world is also passed along gradually, but you're expected to quickly master each move and use it skillfully, without a lot of handholding. What seems at first to be about simple combat and some exploration turns into overwhelming odds and twitchy jumping areas where one wrong move will send you back to the last checkpoint. These points are well designed, but some areas require more patience than others. We found that it depends greatly on your attitude about games like this. If you're a die-hard treasure collector, you'll find things are much harder because the goodies are placed in hard-to-reach spots that tax your platforming skills heavily. If you aren't obsessed with score and completeness, there are easier routes through the game where enemies aren't as plentiful. In fact, you don't even need to defeat all enemies to make progress through a level, so result-oriented players can have a much different experience than those looking to check off all the little boxes along the way.
Game Mechanics: There are plenty of really creative design touches in Scarygirl, but it doesn't leverage the 2.5D aspects of the game world that we saw in Klonoa. You can hurl projectiles along a 2D plane, but the depth in your environment is strictly window dressing. The controls pack a fair amount of complexity, that goes beyond just running around the world and butt-bouncing enemies... Scarygirl can't actually do any bouncing on enemies. She's equipped to whip enemies or grab them, and can use her whip-like appendage to grapple and hurl enemies or objects in the game world. There are combined techniques you can gain, such as the ability to whip, grab, and constrict an enemy; this has the net result of turning the enemy into a health power-up, which is kind of handy. You can use two distinct attacks, one of which sends enemies into the air, allowing you to juggle them for even more fun. The same appendage can be used as a true grapple, allowing Scarygirl to play as Tomb Raider and swing around from treetops and other hanging spots. These techniques all come together during boss battles, which force you to confront larger, stronger enemies that you'll need to weaken and avoid rather than attack directly. For players unafraid of a platforming challenge that grows steeper and steeper toward the latter half of the game, Scarygirl is a hoot. It's by far the most visually unique game we've seen in some time on any platform. Whether you fall in love with it will depend on your attitude toward some often punishing difficulty, and the "who" of this game is probably a bit more complicated. Younger kids will be drawn in by the colorful visuals, but may be unable to handle some platforming and combat sections. Using the co-op mode helps, but we think the best audience for Scarygirl is likely to be older kids steeped in years of Mario and similar titles, or older gamers looking for something to offset the overly saccharine platforming shovelware titles fed to us on a regular basis.
-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock
Related Links: Game Vortex's Review of Klonoa on Wii
Unstoppable Gorg Royal Trouble: Hidden Adventures