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Review: Oozi: Earth Adventure from the Awesome Games Studio

Oozi 2
Review: Oozi: Earth Adventure from the Awesome Games Studio
3.5

Platforms: Windows PC, XBOX 360, Steam

Game Name: Oozi: Earth Adventure

Developer: Awesome Games Studio

Genre: Platformer

Release Date: Steam: Dec 5, 2013

Oozi: Earth Adventure – Developer Summary:

Oozi: Earth Adventure is a classic 2D platformer with old school gameplay – no puzzles, no punishment, just 100% pure classic platforming fun! Its most prominent features are HD visuals and beautiful hand-drawn art, but despite its visual style, it’s a good fit for all kinds of gamers.

What We Think

After a healthy shelf-life on XBOX’s Indie marketplace (XBLIG), Oozi: Earth Adventure has finally made it to Steam after being Greenlit by the community.

Oozi offers a traditional side-scrolling platforming experience with impressive visuals and a focus on the core mechanics of the genre without any unnecessary gimmicks. Oozi was created by the developer of I, Zombie and Yet Another Zombie Defense, offering an attractive world to leap, run and crawl your way through. So, how does it stand up to the abundance of platformers that we’ve seen recently?

Cute First: Ask Questions Later

Oozi: Earth Adventure is built on a sometimes-amusing little story arising from his alien crash landing after which he must hunt down his ship by trekking through multiple worlds and overcoming a variety of cute enemies. This story is told through short clips at the end of each level. Given the size of these areas you won’t find the story slowing down the gameplay often.

There are three gameplay modes in Oozi: story, challenge and arcade. Initially only the story mode is available and it makes up the bulk of the game with around 24 levels spread across four worlds. Each of these worlds has a distinct visual theme that stretches from the scenery to the enemies you’ll encounter. The gameplay itself involves travelling to the end of a level, checkpoint by checkpoint while avoiding dangers such as spike pits and the various enemies.

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Each level is strewn with stars that can be collected for points and to occasionally grant an extra heart (each heart enables you to take another hit before death). There are also five larger, hidden stars that can be collected if you enjoy finding every secret. It’s a shame that there aren’t’t more secrets to find as just five stars feels a little lackluster in this kind of platforming game.

Seeing Stars

There are four difficulty modes in Oozi, ranging from Kids to Hardcore. Choosing normal results in a fairly easy experience with only the occasional pitfall while hardcore reduces your starting health to one heart. Hardcore is definitely the preferable setting as it ensures that some of the more difficult parts of the game get a chance to shine as you endeavor to overcome them again and again.

In addition to the main story mode, there are unlockable arcade and challenge modes. Arcade allows you to play any completed level again with a time limit and predetermined score goals to achieve one, two or three star ratings. Challenge mode offers a more varied experience in the form of objectives such as collecting a certain number of falling stars or clearing an area of enemies without taking damage. These are both welcome additions and they expand the already sizable game considerably.

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Each level is quite large and while there isn’t much to explore or find, the challenge grows at an enjoyable rate. A healthy array of abilities are unlocked as you progress, ranging from a stomp move to a wall grab power. The gameplay lacks any particularly unique features and the pace of movement could be faster but generally Oozi offers a solid platforming experience.

Oozi-ng With Charm

Aesthetically Oozi is very attractive and you’ll find a wide variety of environments throughout the game. Each world has a unique visual theme and individual levels also feature some twists on these themes. The music is somewhat repetitive but it also sets an engaging rhythm for your journey through each level; enemies seem to move along to the beat and you’ll find your own movements matching that beat before long.

Oozi: Earth Adventure is a fun, if somewhat basic, platformer with charming visuals and a lot of content. If you’re looking for the latest twist on the platforming genre or an interesting new innovation you won’t find it here but you will find a well executed and graphically appealing entry in the genre that’s worth a look for fans of platforming.

Get Oozi: Earth Adventure on Steam

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Watch the official launch trailer for Oozi: Earth Adventure: