Cloudberry Kingdom (Wii U eShop) Review

Now here is a game based on an interesting premise. Take a fairly standard platforming game and rather than hand crafting the games areas by hand perfecting each one to allow for the best results; the fine folk over at Pwnee studios have built an algorithm to generate levels for them which can allow relatively unlimited amount of challenges to be played as more can be generated in an instant to suit your needs.

A huge variety of computer algorithms used to achieve some great results in various fields, in order for you to be reading this text requires literally thousands of them to put this text on screen. They are simple in concept but incredibly handy, the real art however is using them in the right places and instances. Simcity uses them to great effect for creating natural flowing landscapes and the same can be said of Cloud berry kingdom – its level generation has potential to do great things but it also becomes its greatest weakness.

While it allows for essentially limitless levels it does produce somewhat alien looking levels at times, it has all the telltale signs of a game that is not curated in design. This is something that in a sense produces somewhat forgettable gameplay situations. Unlike in a Mario game where everything is placed and has a purpose, has been play tested continuously for the best experience; The levels presented here can be completed with enough trial and error but have no real soul to them. It has a semi-natural and flowing pace but nothing astounding in terms of smart and unique layouts.

This game quickly goes from being similar to Mario in pace to a level beyond Super Meat Boy in terms of difficulty and complexity and that’s where this title falls down. It’s a real shame as the actual gameplay mechanics are very solid, the controls are tight, responsive and when combined with additional abilities to change the handling of your characters it can be a fair bit of fun at times so long as a decent level is generated for you. I understand that the goal of the game is to train your reflexes more than your pattern recognition skills, this however doesn’t really appeal to most people I have shown this game too. It is much more focused on the hardcore gamer in this sense but this is its limiting factor.

To push this game forward is an incredibly simple plot that feels tacked on as a last minute addition rather than being an integral part of the title. You play Bob a washed up action hero who’s most interesting trait is that he is voiced by Kevin ‘The Adventures of Hercules’ Sorbo. He has to save the kidnapped princess as is standard in the genre and regain his image as a hero once more. This is told via some CGI cut scenes that are lacking in any real character with dull scripting and some of the worst ‘Dad humor’ I have personally seen in a long time. I do wish they not implemented the story mode at times because it ultimately detracts from the games overall character what little it has. Again there are good intentions behind this but the overall effect just causes an overall feeling of disappointment.

In this story mode you will end up traversing a variety of environments (which are basically just different skins) to progress forward over several hundred levels. With each only being on average 20-30 seconds you will never be stuck for long, at least until the later levels that is. For the first few chapters the entire concept actually seams fairly robust but as the game decides to up the overall difficulty is gets very uneven very quickly and will quickly make you doubt your personal skills in the game. If you want to see how the level is completed you can choose to see how to finished the level by trading some of the gems you have collected in previous levels – it is at this point that you realize just how unrealistic the game can be in terms of bad level generation.

I know I am being harsh on this part of the game but ultimately the entire experience relies on it to be enjoyable in the level design, without that then it just falls flat. It’s not horrible it’s just not overly enjoyable at the same time; it’s an experiment in frustration more than fun. I really want to like the base gameplay in this but I just can’t bring myself to do it.

When it comes to the aesthetics of the title visually everything is smooth in terms of frame rate as it needs to be but beyond that the overall look of the title is a real let down. Everything looks like an amateur artist with a bootleg copy of Flash made it. It is bright yet fairly bland experience that is basically there to be functional and not much more, there is some charm but not much more than putting eyes on swinging blades and blocks. This is an area that really needed to be improved on as it has the possibility to be so much better in focus and execution. I can understand why they didn’t do it in the more popular pixel art style simply with the goal of keeping everything clean and visible; but the more modernized look doesn’t do it any favors at the same time.

The audio however is a surprising highlight, it’s a varied mix of different tracks designed to keep the pace flowing at a quick pace as all are high quality while complimenting the action perfectly meaning that at the very least you should check out the sound track. It’s a shame the rest of the package doesn’t live up to these same standards.

And yet with all these negative view points I didn’t give it a 1 out of 5. For all the bad points it has it’s not an entirely bad game. Pwnee is on the right track to building something incredible it’s just in its current form it is flawed in its execution to some degree. The platforming can be loads of fun as they do have the controls handled near perfectly I do hope they can continue on to a sequel because there is a lot to be learnt from this game and to be improved on as the idea of an endless platform game is very tantalizing to say the least.  This is a title that would feel more at home as a cheap iPad app rather than a $15 eShop release is the real issue at home. It would do brilliantly as a brief time filler for 5 minutes and not much more, it’s just lacking in any real meat.

I have to respect the fact a small indie studio is able to get this game up and running in any fashion and have it playable, it also helps that they are supporting Wii U which we always appreciate here at Vooks. More time to balance the game definitely would have helped out immensely.

Don’t go in expecting a ground breaking experience and I’m sure you will see some good in this game, but this is more a toy than a deep experience and you will probably play with it for an hour or two and then most likely never touch again. It has a good heart to it, now it just needs to go above and beyond with the next game in the series if there ever is one.