Ancients of Ooga

Developer: Bacon Wrapped Games
Steam Release: May2011
Hours Played: 9.1
Similar To: Cloning Clyde / Snapshot / The Swapper
Rating: 2/5 Parsnips



GAMEPLAY
To the deep rumble of bongo drums and the ominous power of voodoo, you control gremlin type creatures in an effort to fulfill a variety of objectives involving quirky and bizarre actions. Cannibalism, vomiting and sacrificing your fellow creatures all play a surreal role here. As completing all objectives may take nothing short of a lifetime, most mere mortals will aim to complete just the core objectives. You move in the usual left/right way and you can climb, fall down as well as jump and double-jump. Slight 3D movement is also allowable for when you need to move to an altar, climb up a ladder or jump on a trampoline etc. The landscape (in the early levels at least) resemble jungles containing all-sorts from sinister predators, deadly brambles, piranha-infested lakes, trapdoors and levers to pull.

BALANCE & PACE
AoO sets itself apart from other platformers in two main ways: (1) You can inhabit the spirit of other NPCs and move them around. This is useful for when you're behind a locked gate but also when you need to use the attributes of other creatures. (2) You may swallow anything from fruit, rocks and logs to your fellow creatures - and then puke or throw them out later. This is useful for transporting things but also for when you need to sacrifice something or someone. You'll be ploughing through a fair amount of text as you encounter seemingly endless NPCs and the movement can seem clunky but these are minor complaints in a game that scores high in ingenuity and originality.

PRESENTATION & DESIGN
As well as the quirky world and left-field ideas with the gameplay mechanics, Ancients of Ooga is chock-full of strange design features that are both innovative and backward. Taking possession of other NPCs, floating around in spirit form and vomitting melons is all well and good but for a game that bombards you with stats as long as your arm it does seem a bit odd that you have no choice but to play in the standard 1280x720 resolution with no option to change it and that you use arrow keys rather than the more intuitive and conventional WASD keys. Also although they have done a reaonably good job with the graphics, I did find the movement to be a little jerky and harsh.



PROGRESS SYSTEM
Bacon Wrapped Games have gone monumentally overboard with their inclusion of all manner of stats and progress. The game is divided into nine realms which are in turn split into levels. Completed levels can be accessed while others are greyed out. You peruse levels by hitting Chapter Select in the main screen and choosing a realm. When you click on the name of a level you are shown how much you have completed it (as a percentage) and a huge variety of secondary objectives on the right that you can do. These can vary from level to level but, rest assured, there is a huge amount to do to keep completionists busy. 

CONCLUSION

Although I have yet to delve into the later stages of AoO, it does seem to do a fine job in tinkering and changing the usual platforming-puzzler conventions. True, quite a bit does seem to have been adapted from the Oddworld series but I think it largely succeeds in making the game something intriguing and different. One other negative though would have to be the jerky movement and the restriction on there being any option to change the rather low, fixed resolution. Nevertheless, for something a little out of the ordinary, AoO is worth a look.