Review: Astraware Platypus (Or, How We Saved Outer Mungola During Spring Break)
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Dateline: Collosotropolan. “Sir,” the dedicated bureaucrat approached his leader. “Our situation had reached catastrophic proportions. Every inch of our territory has been overbuilt with giant superstructures. Our environment has been destroyed by clouds of pollutants and toxins. We can hardly survive another day. What are your orders?”
“Hmm,” the leader thought out loud, “We must expand quickly. Our neighbors to the North are just as overbuilt as we are. An invasion would do no good. To the South are our loyal allies, we cannot disturb them, and the oceans to the West are no good. To the East. Yes, we must go to the East. The Mungolans are simple, earthy types without much love for industry. We attack at Dawn!”
Dateline: Mungola. “Sir,” the anxious bureaucrat approached his leader, “we have just learned some disturbing news. Our spies to the West have reported that several fleets of Collosotropolan fighters were seen heading toward our border. They are expected to cross into our territory within the hour.”
“I had feared this day would come,” the leader ruminated, “we are simple and earthy. We have no real use for technology. They are one of the most technologically advanced nations in the galaxy. We have no choice. Ready the F-27’s.”
“Sir? Are you sure? That is but a single, aging fleet. Against the Collosotropolans.”
“I know. I know what I am saying. But they are our only hope. The Platypus fighter is the last hope of the Mungola people.”
Overview and Gameplay: In Platypus, you play the last best hope for the Mungolan people, the fleet of aging F-27 Platypus fighters. In this side-scrolling shoot-em up, you will need to watch both your back and your front as wave after wave of Collosotropolan fighters and vessels attack (oddly, this back story is never mentioned in the game itself).
The game is divided into four worlds, with five levels in each world, for a total of 20 levels. Once you have unlocked a world, you can always start a new game from the beginning of that world. The game starts off relatively easy with smaller fighters flying toward you in waves, and larger attack cruisers coming in from behind (these are your primary targets).
As you progress, however, the waves of fighters become more intricately arranged, while the primary targets become larger and more maneuverable. At the end of each level, you will receive an evaluation and bonus based upon how many targets you destroyed.
Don’t worry though, you are not completely without help. When you destroy certain enemies, they may leave behind a star. Stars will temporarily increase your firepower, and come in four different varieties:
- Yellow will give you a four way blast (two wide shots forward, diagonal up, and diagonal down.
- Blue will give you infinity fire.
- Green will give you a short range pule blast
- Red will give you rockets.
Stars will typically appear initially as yellow. Shooting them, however, will cause them to spin and change color.
Controls: There are two ways to control the action in this game (which is always played in landscape mode). You can use the D-pad to move your ship or the stylus. The center D-pad button is always fire.
I found these controls to be less than optimal. Using the stylus resulted in covering most of the screen with my hand as I moved the ship. The D-pad on my Mogul, however, is simply not well designed for this type of game. While you can flip the screen or turn on autofire (which I highly recommend), there is no option to remap the controls. This would have been useful as it would have allowed me to make much better use of the Mogul’s button layout in the game.
Graphics: The graphics in Platypus are unlike any I have seen before. In fact, unlike most games today, they were not initially rendered on a computer at all. Every element was made from clay and photographed using a digital camera. Legend has it that the original creator of the game had only one lump of clay, which he remolded again and again to create all of the different elements of the game (which were then colored using Photoshop). The result is a fantastically animated game which looks much more like a cartoon than a video game.
Saving and Lives: Like most arcade style shoot-em up games, the length of your game will depend upon how well you can avoid getting hit. In each game, you will have three waves of five fighters, for a total of 15 ships. Of course, you control them one at a time, and each one starts exactly where the last one was destroyed. There is one catch, however, at the end of each wave, your score will reset to zero, so be careful out there.
Playing 15 lives, however, can take a significant amount of time. As such, Astraware has wisely allowed you to save your game at any time. To do so, just exit. The next time you start, you will have the option of continuing your game or starting a new game. Be careful, though, because you can only save one game at a time. Starting a new game will delete the previously saved game.
Conclusion: I am not normally a fan of scrolling shoot-em up games on the Pocket PC. I typically find the controls to be too difficult to access. I am constantly pressing the wrong button, which gets frustrating. To be honest, Platypus was no exception. My finger was always slipping off of the D-pad and hitting Exit by mistake. Unlike other side scrolling shoot-em up games I have played on my Mogul, however, I found that this did not bother me as much as it should have. The reason was the amazing graphics. If the enemy ships had not been attacking me, I might have been perfectly happy to watch the claymation ships fly around the screen (this would have made a great screensaver). Platypus is a fast paced, fast playing game. If you enjoy side scrolling shoot-em up game, then I suggest you give the amazing graphics in Platypus a try…and see if you can save Outer Mungolia over your Spring Break.
What I Liked:
- Amazing claymation graphics
- numerous uniquely designed ships
- fast paced gameplay
What Needs Improvement:
- Backstory was not included in the game
- controls were not mappable
Vital Stats:
Name: Platypus
Developer: Astraware
Version: 1.0 (note the this review was based upon a prerelease version which may not be identical to the final release)
Tested on: Sprint Mogul With Windows Mobile Professional 6.
Also Available: Windows Mobile 2003 and higher, Palm OS, Windows Mobile Smartphone. Other formats should be available soon.
Where to Buy: Platypus
Price: $19.95
Trial: Three games
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This game just looks so great!
Stylus use is a bit weird indeed, I think that this gave me a good idea of how left-handies have to feel when using ‘regular’ programs. I’m guessing people who are left-handed won’t have such a problem with Platypus!
(But in my playing I didn’t think that it’s unplayable for right-handed people at all, I got used to it quite well)
I agree, SPM. I hate the same thought about lefties.
I really did not like using the stylus for control. And I also agree that this is one of the coolest looking games around. I just love all of the claymation and backgrounds.
Doug