Animated Dudes Review

Every viable gaming platform has some form of platforming mascot under their belt. The NES had Mario, the Genesis had Sonic, the PlayStation had Crash and Spy, the Xbox has the less successful Blinx and Voodoo Vince, and finally, the PlayStation 2 has Sly Cooper, Jak and Daxter, and Ratchet and Clank. There’s a correlation between platformers and systems that last. Without one, your system is likely to fail. Tapwave has finally secured a platformer for their Zodiac platformer. How does it stack?

Animated Dudes is an almost traditional side-scrolling 2D action title. You have your hero, in this case being a green gob of nuclear waste. Your goal is to save the planet from a villain. In the process of doing this, however, inanimate objects, such as aluminum cans, axes, etc., are all brought to life. They act as obstacles on your goal of reaching the end of each level.

So far, from what I’ve played, this Zodiac exclusive is a fairly fun romp and bomp platformer. You take control of more than one character (three to be precise), each with their own ability. The green blob can glide, shoot goo, and jump, while the dynamite has a powerful wick, along with a plunger that can jump high and land atop enemies’ heads.

Basically, I’ve already described what you are to expect. Animated Dudes is a standard 2D platformer with three playable characters, each with different abilities. It’s something we’ve all experienced at one point in our gaming lives. Collect items such as hearts to regain lost health. As I said, there’s nothing new here.

Where Animated Dudes shines the most is in the graphics department. The graphics engine is beautiful with colorful characters, gorgeous backdrops, despite it being a trash-yard, and full-screen support. There are weather effects, rumble features, and particle effects. Even though I can’t confirm this first-hand (the game is quite difficult, by the way), Tapwave claims there are 32 different levels.

Depending on if you like side-scrolling platformers, this is probably a Zodiac game you need to own. The difficulty level puts it out of the range of most gamers. It’s a shame that the developers didn’t include a feature allowing you to start at the beginning of each level, because once you’re all out of lives, you have to restart from the beginning of not the level, but the game. If you can put that behind you, you’ve got a solid game.