Review Flabawaba 5/5 · Jul 28, 2021
Listen, this is the best game of all time. Spoilers for the story I guess
It isnt, but I have to say it is. It was my childhood, and everyone I know who has played the game has immense nostalgia for it and nothing but nice things to say. I myself have probably played from start to finish 20 times …
Listen, this is the best game of all time. Spoilers for the story I guess
It isnt, but I have to say it is. It was my childhood, and everyone I know who has played the game has immense nostalgia for it and nothing but nice things to say. I myself have probably played from start to finish 20 times
The game is story based, and primarily uses stylus controls, for almost everything, movement, combat, text advancing, interacting with objects, dancing, making your creature, they all use the stylus, the face buttons and dpad are both just used for 8 directional movement, so it is good for people who like using the stylus in their left hand at least.
The game starts off with a pretty basic story, your friend Oogie, got kidnapped and you gotta chase after the alien who kidnapped them. You start off on Tapti a planet with lots of things to explore and collect with 5 continents around it each with different species and varied environments. In most areas there are 3 native creatures, 2 unique ones and a third one made of half of the parts of the other two.
The creatures and intractable items are all 2d, with you dragging and dropping the different parts you collect onto yourself in the creature creator. I would say the style is almost reminiscent of a pop-up book. The camera is not the nicest either
The progression kind of takes a turn when you reach the third continent of Tapti; Noodlin, where nests are introduced. Before, you collected parts from the overworld, completing quests, and befriending and defeating other creatures. You will still get parts those ways, but now you are primarily rewarded parts for claiming nests by either befriending everyone there or defeating them all in combat. Not every part is easy to get, and there are the parts for "extinct" creatures (they do not show up in the list of creatures, and you never see them, but you find their parts in the area, and they have the same structure as other creatures) that can only be gotten that way. These parts are pretty rare and are usually far better than the parts you will get for the next few areas, but may take grinding to get them.
Once you go through every area of Tapti, you rescue Oogie only to find he has been infected by the alien that captured him. so to find a cure, you chase after the alien in the parts you collected of his spaceship. You land on Pangu, where the alien has dropped the temperature and infected all the species living there, his name is Gar Skuther and he also combines two of the native species to make a new one, but all of the other combination species are either already a part of the ecosystem, or are not infected, so I dont know how many Gar Skuther is responsible for. Anyways, Pangu is a smaller planet, and only has two continents, the latter having a terrible rock throwing mini game.
The next planet is Baysee, which is my favorite planet. It has two species both in an infected lowland battling out, but neither are carnivores, they are both herbivores that are driven to violence by the infection. Meanwhile, the actual carnivores are starving in the highlands that havent been infected yet, and cant get food because of the infection and how aggressive their prey has become. You manage to claim the nests and cure the land and then you move onto the next planet, despite it being almost as big as Tapti. Hm. Also it has the best music.
Flubit is next, a erupting volcano that has a timer to open all the vents before the planet explodes with you and the starmap(progression item) on it. After that, you can find variant creatures, with different colour pallets, which is neat, and each have their own quest for you to do. After finishing up there, you leave for the next planet again, despite Flubit still being just as big as Baysee. Hmmmmm.
The last planet is Zencrie, which is infected as well, and is where Gar Skuther is. You help out the creatures there get cured, and they let you go fight Gar Skuther. You can then fight him or have a dance battle. you blow him up and all of his creatures spontaneously die and everyone gets cured. Hooray
there is a sixth planet, but all it has are creatures that were made by people(these show up throughout the game, you cant get parts from them, and they change every time you load) not much there.
So, the game really shortens out when you get off the second planet, which is a shame. your level caps at 30 which you can easily get by the end of pangu. it feels like the game may have been rushed, but I love it anyways.