First things first, this game has oodles and oodles of noodles…I mean charm.
From the endearing main character, the Super Cow herself, to the upbeat music, lush environments, the “baddies” who are riddled with personality to the downright adorable Déjà Vu Mushrooms who double as the level checkpoints, there is absolutely no shortage of good old fashioned cartoony goodness.
It is also one of the most gorgeous titles on CGs which visually would slip right alongside some of the XBLAs best lookers without even the pickiest “graphicaholics” among us having any objections. Coupled with an incredible amount of polish, this one is extremely visually appealing in pretty much every way. Unless of course you are strictly into more “realistic” visuals, then this one definitely isn’t for you.
There is also a slightly amusing storyline with pretty top notch voice acting showcasing a colourful cast of animal characters through slide shows between levels.
It is a rather basic platformer with the standard fare of a lot of collecting, bouncing on enemies heads, finding secrets, making it to checkpoints, making it to the end of the level and boss battles. Not exactly revolutionary stuff but what it does, it does very well.
The collecting isn’t as simple as it sounds as on top of the secret rooms/areas that are waiting to be discovered, a lot of the coins are hidden behind shrubbery or some other obstruction so you must search every nook and cranny to find them all.
Which brings me to the negatives. There are quite a lot of coins to collect and the HUD doesn’t include any sort of visible running tally, meaning that aside from counting as you go (and who the hell is going to do that when there are over a hundred coins in some levels) you have no idea how many more you have to collect at any time. The only time you find out is when it’s too late – at the end of the level, meaning if you missed one coin in the whole level and you are a completist like me, you will have to start the level all over again.
Another negative is bloody Comic Sans! Why do so many developers use this font in their games? For such a polished and beautiful game with an undeniable sense of personality the boring text sticks out like a big sore ridiculously overused thumb.
Aside from these minor gripes the trial experience flew by and I enjoyed racking up all the collectables and bopping the enemies on their nogginses while appreciating the sheer beauty of the game and feeling a sense of accomplishment from collecting all the coins and finding all the secrets. Now really, isn’t that what a good platformer is all about? Yes, yes it is.
You can definitely tell that developer CTXM LTD has put a shipload of time, effort and tender care into this one.
At 400 points with a whopping 50 levels, 13 trophies & thousands of collectables it is surely worth the purchase, especially if you have a youngen you want to keep quiet for a few hours or so.
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There are however some things to consider: I’m about 1/3 through the game and the first 20 levels all use the same graphics. Trust me, you will be bored after the first 15 levels. Another thing is lack of actual goals. In most levels you can just run straight to the exit, collecting coins is absolutely not necessary. Only for the awards. It’s obviously made with kids in mind, so don’t expect it to have pixel perfect jumps or be a real challenge. The levels are pretty linear with not much vertical jumping involved.
If you’re ok with that it is a great game and you should definitely buy it. BTW it’s the conversion of a two year old PC game. Which brings me to another thing: I never bothered buying stuff like this on PC. Yet on Xbox 360 I really enjoy playing an old school JnR on my TV and am very willing to pay 5 bucks for it. So please, more conversions of PC games. There must be quite a lot of games I missed in the last couple of years.
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