You know, game reviews are a funny thing. You can be critical of a game, point out what makes it good or bad, and offer up well-versed and legible dictations of your thoughts to help potential buyers/players become ever so slightly more informed about a particular delicatessen of software.
And sometimes the reviews are just skimmed over. “First sentence, last sentence” is what I learned in high school. The trivial geek in me follows a pretty formulaic (but easy-to-read) reviews format of likes and dislikes. The “high-on-caffeine” nerd side creates reviews in which I rewrite the LOST mythos.
In this review I’ve combined both, hence the “review in two parts” subtitle. Part 1: a traditional, well-formatted review. Part 2: a sonnet. Why? Just because I like to piss off our reviews editor.
Without further ado…
Notes
Name: Roogoo Twisted Towers
Publisher: South Peak Games
Release: June 2009
Players: 1-4, co-op, versus
Part of me loves puzzle games. That part usually resides on my DS or my iPhone. Once in a while, I’ll come across a good puzzler for consoles. Peggle was one of those. Roogoo is in the same vein, albeit with the addition of action/adventure elements and a storyline that mix up the typical puzzle lay. In it, shapes fall down onto platforms through similarly-shaped holes. It is the player’s job to rotate the platforms and align the holes as the shapes fall, eventually stacking them for completion (or various bonuses and effects).
Likes:
– Visuals: I liked the nice, clean graphics. The visuals remind me of a very “Flash” cartoon design, with some three dimensional elements. The colors are bright and cheerful, even on some of the more “evil” levels. The characters and bosses are designed very well. I think of Happy Tree Friends, especially in their expressions and style. Note to developers: dark and grimy retro-futuristic visuals aren’t the only thing out there. Roogoo does a nice job of creating a pleasing style.
– Puzzles: The puzzles are fun and not too difficult in the Normal difficulty. A player shouldn’t have any issue completing the game in a few hours. There is a good variety/mix of puzzles and mini-games, stretching from the twisted towers (where the game gets its name) to the flying sequences, hammer toss, and “catch-a-shape” minigames. It’s hard to get bored playing it, just frustrated.
– Bosses: Incorporating bosses in a puzzle game can lead to trouble. Roogoo relieves that issue by having the bosses become secondary to the puzzle action on screen. At times, it is just the avoidance of a shape blocking mechanism, and at others it is just slowing down a boss from stealing shapes. A nice touch, and a good way to keep things interesting, especially in the worlds that have over 10 levels.
Dislikes:
– Loading times: What is this, 1995? The loading times are excruciating, and I am often treated to an audible “POP!” when a new level is loaded. This slows down the flow of the game.
– Scoring disparity: It is highly discouraging to play a level and be doing great on time, only to flub up one tower and lose the time bonus. In fact losing the time bonus often means that you’ve missed out on upwards of 1 Million points, something that hurts when your regular score only adds up to 10,000. Roogoo’s time bonuses are so (insanely) high that the regular scoring doesn’t matter. The discrepancy between the time bonuses and regular scoring is discouraging. This is also a bummer without online leaderboards, something that would have kept me coming back to play for points.
– Monotony: The puzzles, although broken up by mini games, are highly monotonous. While they do add elements throughout each puzzle it is not enough to keep me going to the next one. I often found myself taking a break of an hour or so after playing through a world, just to clear my mind of all of the puzzles.
– Awkward controls: Utilizing the Z- and B- trigger buttons to rotate the platforms often had me turning the wrong way. A simple left/right of the analog stick would have been enough. The control scheme seemed difficult at times, especially when the camera’s view was blocking by floating sting rays or asteroids.
Overall:
I actually did enjoy Roogoo, even though I had some issues with its design. As I noted, due to a lack of online leaderboards or score-sharing, it would be difficult for me to do more than one play through. I enjoyed it much more once my wife joined in to play co-op, as I had her clear the screen of debris while I managed the puzzles. Co-op helped to lessen the monotony as well, as teamwork helps to keep things fresh and the action under control. It isn’t shovelware, yet isn’t quite to the level of Peggle yet. It is a good puzzle game, with a very nice and enjoyable presentation, that might be best in small bursts of casual fun.
And now, my Ode to Roogoo:
Sonnet du Roogoo
From South Peak came the puzzler Roogoo
The warmth of Wii did disc soon find to keep
As loading screens insisted waiting, too
And overheard was machine’s pop and bleep
Yet characters and level design showed
That love was spent on aesthetics to please
And plentiful were sounds to ears that know
That tunes of joy and merriment did sing
Though, something irking did remain in sight
‘Twas button placement and the game’s control
That often frustrated my Roogoo’s plight
And caused many a block to miss its hole.
This puzzle game I did enjoy in bursts,
And recommend if puzzles quench thy thirst
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