Mutant Mudds delivers a safe but great platforming experience wrapped in a delightful, nostalgic presentation
Note: this iOS game was played on my ipad mini
Eight and sixteen bit games have made a comeback in recent years, and Renegade Kid's Mutant Mudds serves as a reminder as to why simple old-school games are so attractive to many in the gaming community. In Mutant Mudds, the protagonist, Max, while watching television with his granny, sees a television report warning the world that mud has mutated into aggressive creatures who are wreaking havoc on the planet. Such a basic plot gets out of the way and sets the stage for quirky design and gameplay. Max is a bit of a dorky kid: short, sporting a bowl hair-cut, circular glasses, a boring T and plain black shorts. Game heroes used to be those that kids, particularly the unpopular ones, could relate to, and Max fits that profile.
Mutant Mudds' gameplay is not child's play, however; in its two dimensional platformer/shooter design, difficult, impeccably timed jumps must be made, but this is a game that can be enjoyed by people of all ages. Armed with his water gun, Max can jump, duck, and hover for about two seconds via his jetpack, and he can shoot while performing either of the three. His muddy foes come in a variety of sizes; some are stationary, others pace back and forth or fly. Certain mudds shoot, some wield a blade.
The greatest challenge in Mutant Mudds is not its enemy A.I., though, but it's timing one's jumps carefully. Foes are placed in inconvenient areas, and numerous hazards such as spikes and other traps constantly pose a threat. Warp pads are scattered throughout, giving Max the ability to warp to an area in the background or foreground. The developer used this technique to create some interesting visual effects that can, if the player is not careful, trick one to mistake a large platform in the background to be a small, utilizable platform in the conventional part of the fray.
Collecting diamonds and reaching secret areas in every stage also provides a steep challenge. There are one hundred diamonds in each stage, and it is important to accumulate them to purchase a few upgrades from Max's granny. There are only three upgrades total that you can buy: a vertical booster to propel Max into the sky, an upgrade that extends the duration of Max's hover, and the power shot upgrade for Max's gun, enabling it to shoot further and destroy barriers that guard secret doors. Max can equip one power-up at a time, and they can only be switched out when you go back to Grannie's Attic. This is a tedious aspect; when attempting to discover secrets which require utilization of one of the three power-ups, upon discovering the secret door, you may have to leave the stage, go equip the power-up needed to reach the door, and return back to the beginning of the stage again.
The hidden levels, accessed by entering through secret doors, are named "G-Land" and "V-Land" stages. The only discrepancies I noticed between the two differently named stages were the coloring of the stages, and, perhaps, the difficulty. V-Land levels are red and a bit more punishing, but G-Land stages also issue a healthy challenge; neither of the two types of levels offer much new in terms of Mutant Mudds' gameplay; it would have been nice, for the sake of depth, if Renegade Kid would have added some new elements or incentives for conquering these secret areas.
There are twenty total main stages and a special stage within each. The gamer may run across inaccessible, secret doors labeled "CGA." These can be accessed once you complete the game one hundred percent, and they are by far the most demanding levels in the game. Altogether, sixty stages is a lot of content for a one dollar game. I had to get used to holding my ipad mini and "pressing" the touch screen buttons like a traditional handheld gaming device, but once I did, it became a comfortable experience. This is a tough game, but it is not rendered frustratingly so thanks to checkpoints that have been implemented into every stage, unlike the 3DS version.
Browsing through the games in the Apple App Store, I noticed a lot of potential gems but not many standout platformers. Mutant Mudds is a great slow-paced platformer, especially when you consider the fact that the Nintendo 3DS version is ten times more expensive. This is a safe game that really offers nothing new to the genre, but it succeeds in delivering a solid experience wrapped in a delightful, nostalgic presentation.