Roogoo Twisted Towers Wii First Impressions

Shortly after the release of the Xbox Live Arcade version of Roogoo, SouthPeak announced that it would bring the colorful puzzler to the Nintendo Wii and DS. While the XBLA and DS versions will look very similar, Roogoo Twisted Towers for the Wii is an entirely new game that will add another layer of gameplay to the already challenging mechanics of the original game. Now, as you're trying to match all the colorful blocks with their respective holes in the platform, which now fall through a curved arch, you'll use your Wii Remote to shoot Meemoos that are trying to steal your blocks. SouthPeak representatives came by to give us a quick look at Twisted Towers, and so far, things seem to be coming along nicely--especially when they make it look so easy.

The story revolves around saving the planet from the evil prince who has Meemoo henchmen stealing shapes (meteors) to power the planet. You play as the Roogoo, the fun-loving environmentally friendly creatures that want to bring the shapes back because these blocks spread life and joy to the planet Roo. As in the XBLA version, your goal is to catch the colored blocks and match the shapes with the corresponding holes on a platform. Using the Wii's B button and Z button, you rotate the platform so that the blocks will pass through. The noticeable difference with Twisted Towers is that the blocks don't drop in a straight line as they did in the XBLA version; instead, there is a dotted line to indicate that the blocks will move along a curve so you'll have to look ahead and think fast. The basic, straight-up-and-down game already takes a bit of practice to get used to, but Twisted Towers looks to be even more complicated, which is especially true when the Meemoos come out to steal your blocks. Using the Wii Remote you'll launch hammers at them, but the blocks just keep on coming.

We were able to watch the SouthPeak representative play through a couple of levels and see how each of them progressed. The game is much more involved this time around, with cutscenes and switches within the level with which to interact. This is when co-op mode would come in handy, where one player would focus on the meteors by rotating the platforms while the other would be in charge of taking out the Meemoos with weapons that can be upgraded and changed from level to level. In the next area, we saw a pirate ship that would continuously shoot cannonballs at our meteors. The angle of the platform also changed, so instead of guiding the meteors from top to bottom, we were trying to rotate the platform to match things horizontally. Once the level was complete, the ship and separate rowboats went up in flames, sinking to their own version of Davey Jones' Locker. We were told that they would later return as ghosts, which shows that these Meemoos are persistent. Although the game still isn't done, the light animation we saw helped make the game feel like there's a purpose and a story rather than it just being a puzzle game where you rotate platforms during each level.

We also had the opportunity to see a skydiving mode where Roogoo would fall from the sky. The goal was to collect as many shapes as possible on the way down and shoot any Meemoos that get in your way. SouthPeak also plans to have a variety of level bosses, each with their own quirks and abilities to keep the game as diverse as possible. From what we've seen, Twisted Towers retains that addictive gameplay by changing up the environments to help keep things fresh and exciting.

If you or a friend have the DS version of Roogoo, there will be content that can be shared between the Wii and DS. There will be an option to play with four players in a Party mode that includes a shooting-gallery type of game, as well as a game where you use a net to catch items. Four players can also play in a split-screen tower race where you work together to rotate the platforms. We didn't get a chance to see how this would work, but we look forward to seeing more from Roogoo Twisted Towers as it approaches its release date in February 2009.