It’s usually not a good sign when you can’t find a game listed at popular game retailers when it first launches. Such was the case with Mojo on PS2 and Xbox, which launched way back in 2003. At the time, I was only able to find it on Amazon for the bargain bin price of $10. Yeah, 10 whole bucks for a newly-released title. Must be an instant classic, right?
Actually, I was somewhat pleasantly surprised. You play as what is essentially a pinball. There are no flippers or springs, though. The objective of every level is to collect colored cubes (red, green, blue and yellow) that match the color of your ball.
After the first few levels, you have to use what is called a color infuser to change the color of your ball. Infusers are glowing balls of energy. They can be in the open or covered behind other colored blocks, forcing you to discover a path to the infusers in order to collect all of the colored cubes.
All in all, there are 100 single-player levels for you to master with varying degrees of complexity. Various obstacles are placed in levels past the first few, which make levels more challenging and add a unique twist. Patience and quick reflexes are important in later levels, both to survive and beat the target time.
There’s also a Battle Mode, allowing up to four players to compete in arena-like levels. And then there’s the stage editor, which allows you to create and play your own levels. For a budget title, it’s a pretty decent addition.
Where Mojo falls especially flat is in the audio and visual department. It looks very simple. The most intricate part of Mojo’s graphics engine is the backgrounds, which fill the void between each platform. Still, it looks like a budget game.
One of the bigger problems that I had was with Mojo’s physics. Collision detection problems are consistently annoying. I found that falling off of ledges without much reason leaves you quite dissatisfied at the end of a level, often forcing you to replay through no fault of your own.
At times, Mojo can be an addictive little puzzle game with challenges for both casual and hardcore gamers. I’d imagine that younger gamers would enjoy it quite a bit. Mojo feels like the PS2 and Xbox version of Super Monkey Ball, although Super Monkey Ball has much more replay value, thanks to the numerous mini-games.
