While the graphics can look a bit childish at first sight, don’t be mistaken, you have an attractive, colourful and very good Metroidvania in this game.
The premise is a bit strange, the favourite shooting star of the prince goes missing and so does his father, the King.
The cutscene/intro looked handdrawn which is a nice touch, but is way too long for a game of the genre. You constantly get interrupted by dialogue and you wonder when the game will actually start.
The game loading screen are thankfully filled with little tid bits and random facts about squids, or the game in general. I’ll admit that there are a few facts I think are meant as humorous rather than true; as I really doubt gorillas are allergic to squids in real life. But I’m ready to be proven wrong!
But enough about the point I didn’t like much, because all in all it’s a VERY fun platformer. I was surprised at how interesting the gameplay was: the royal cannot move on his own and gets attached, through some sort of magical chain, to Squishy the squid. The royal can eat enemies which get transformed into hearts to replenish our life, or coins. He can also swallow some shape to help along with your ventures.
The music was quite entertaining but it randomly stopped through the first level. I was afraid my device was malfunctioning, but I could play any other games with music fine except this one, so I suspect a random bug prevented the music from playing at one point. When it picked up again, I was able to fully appreciate it: a predominantly chiptune/electronica soundtrack done by Dave Dexter.
You’d think you’d get tired dragging along a big lazy prince, but his presence is actually benevolent to your adventures, or rather his adventure cause he doesn’t give you much choice in the matter: only the royal scepter can separate you two.
After a couple of hours in the game, I’m still confused. Was it meant for kids or for adults? It seems a bit too colourful for adults, and a bit too difficult for kids. The game falls somewhere in between on that aspect. Why don’t you try it for yourself and tell me?
I was absolutely shocked that the game was actually available for free. It only starts asking you to buy it after several hours of playing. And you would be a bit insane to say no!
