Pallurikio (WiiWare) - Review by Chris

Introduction

Nintendo's WiiWare service continues to steadily grow in both library size and quality and over the past year, while said specific company might not have made the biggest effort, independent developers have and we've seen a large number of original concepts on the service allowing these developers to flourish. Once again, another independent developer steps up the plate to offer an original take on the tried and tested platforming formula, with Playstos Entertainment giving us Pallurikio; a game which utilises an interesting mechanic to certainly change the way you'll approach the game. But does this one leave us bouncing with joy or does it simply fall flat?

Gameplay

Pallurikio sets itself up with a very simplistic story that harks to the likes of Jumanji. A group of children and a dog discover an abandoned house and decide to have a look inside. Upon entering, they discover an old board game but get sucked into the game's world and they now have to try and get back to the real world, while in the state of a red ball, by completing a succession of levels. The story is bare to the bones and brings very little to the game as it's never explicitly referenced when you come to the actual levels and nor is it explicitly explained how one of the kids and his dog become the red amorphous character who you'll be piloting through the levels. As such, the story does little more than provide a crude background upon which the gameplay, which thankfully is of a much greater calibre than the story, is portrayed.

The game takes the form of a platformer, with some slight puzzle elements thrown in for good measure. Those used to moving their character around and jumping, however, are best advised to forget that logic as it's not employed here. Foregoing the genre standard, Pallurikio easily stands out as another unique platforming experience on the service by making you draw directional paths at various lengths to slingshot your character over or through obstacles at speed. Using the on screen cursor, you'll press and hold the A button and move the Wii-mote in the desired direction producing a line which represents your trajectory and speed and let go when you're happy, shooting your character off. You also have the ability to do a second slingshot in mid air if you wish to correct or elongate a jump but you must land on a horizontal surface before you can do this again or if lucky enough, hit a vertical surface to be granted another slingshot. It's simple to get to grips with but even if you are having trouble, the game puts that to rest with a very well designed tutorial that takes you through everything. This slingshot mechanic isn't entirely new to the genre but it's put to great use here and is incredibly refined, making for some tense moments as the game progresses to some of the more challenging and obstacle laden levels. It represents the only movement you can make with the character, something which might annoy certain gamers as keeping the ball still between obstacles in certain levels isn't easy and will result in deaths aplenty with the one-hit rule being employed. Luckily, there's no penalty for dying other than being taken back to the last checkpoint you passed so it's easy enough to get back to where you fell.

The game comprises of over 50 levels of increasing difficulty, all of which are split into 6 worlds. The first 5 worlds are unlocked progressively and cover well trodden aesthetics and areas seen in many of the genre defining titles, such as an icy world, a space themed world, the jungle, a medieval world and a city. Each introduces its own twists on the gameplay, such as gravity or ice walkways, as well as many obstacles that you'll have to pass to reach the goal at the end of the level. It certainly becomes increasingly tense towards the end of the game as levels become trickier to navigate and you're always watching the clock, which is slowly decreasing. There are timer items strewn throughout the levels to provide you with some extra time but in most cases, you can get through the levels without them. There are also many items to collect in the levels, such as stars, swirled candies and cards, which all contribute to a level score, which will see a time bonus for the time left after completion. These items are also not necessary to collect but the game manages to insight a competitive nature that will have you trying to collect as many as possible before making a mad dash to the finish. The sixth and final world is comprised of a selection of special stages designed to truly test ones skills and have fewer checkpoints and many more obstacles and these really will test your patience and hand eye coordination. The game is strictly single player, offering up the aforementioned story mode option along with a time trial option but other than this, there isn't anything else. There's enough content to keep you going but it lacks any significant replayability. When you're paying 1000 points, you'd hope there was something a little more meatier to provide some needed longevity.

Controls

With an on-the-surface simplistic gameplay mechanic, it's good to see the developers have kept the control scheme in a style. Playstos has opted to use the Wii-mote on its own with the IR pointer being put to use in conjunction with a single button, this being the A button, and it works extremely well. The IR pointer, although suffering from a very, very slight amount of shakiness when the controller is held still, responds to your movements well and your character will generally follow your aim as planned. There was the occasional issue while playing where aiming with the A button held down resulted in the character jumping off even though the button was still pressed down and keeping the character centred between hazards with the setup did result in many deaths but it never resulted in any overwhelming issues that prevented me from finishing the levels with ease.

Graphics

Everything moves on a linear, two dimensional plain but the game's objects and backgrounds are all designed to give the effect of the game being in 3D. As a result, the mixture of the two forms creates a nice visual style, with some nice attention to detail paid to the backgrounds which often have items or objects moving about on their own accord behind the gameplay. The 2D visuals apply to the spherical main character and the swirled candies, timers and cards littering the environments, as well as some of the platforms. While the character may be a red ball, his face has been animated extremely well to show a variety of emotions that tries to tie the game back to the rather vague and glossed over story and it does inject some charm into the game. The 3D work isn't of the highest quality and it is noticeable but the game was never about the visuals; rather it was about the gameplay and that's where it's important. The 6 themed worlds all look the part though, but apart from the final world of chocolate, it's stuff we've all seen before in other platform titles and done to a higher standard. There is the occasional slowdown at the level completion screen where confetti spreads all over and the score board pops up to tally your score for the level and it's strange that it would appear here, if at all given that the game runs flawlessly elsewhere, but as it's not during actual play, it doesn't harm the experience.

Sound

While not an entirely moving soundtrack, being far from memorable, the game's music does just enough to help capture the mood of the worlds you are playing around with each track tailored specifically to each individual world. Sound effects are likewise minimal in effort but get the job done. Like the graphics, though, the game was never meant to be a showcase for musical talent.

Final comments

Pallurikio is a fun little platform title and certainly one of the better and more original offerings on the service, although don't expect it to wow you off your feet. With over 50 levels to enjoy, there's plenty to see here, even if you can blast through them relatively quickly, but the only incentive of longevity is the ability to replay levels to improve your score. The biggest issue that many will hold with the game is the pricing. At 1000 points, it is a bit on the expensive side and is in direct competition with other better platform titles on the service. While that certainly is going to provide some food for thought, Pallurikio is worth a look over the holiday period if you're in want of something simplistic to take your mind off of things.

Pro: Platforming presents a nice level of challenge with an interesting mechanic, controls are simple and work extremely well, presentation gets the job done nicely...
Con: ...But it's not of the highest standard, little in the way of replayability, a little overpriced
Final score: 6.5

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