One of my favorite quirky games for the iOS is “Meow Meow Happy Fight”, a twin stick shooter where you play as various anime & Japanese inspired….things like cats and vending machines vs other weird Japanese-inspired things. You really need to play it to “get it”.
The first thing that drew me to Meow Meow Happy Fight was the graphic style. I loved the bright colors and hyper adorable characters and its unusual sense of humor. The game has tons to unlock and encourages you to replay missions for more points.
When I found out that Land-A Panda was coming out and was designed by the same developer, Big Pixel Studios, I was fairly excited for a unique experience with a similar graphical style.
I did get the style and presentation that I wanted, but not a whole lot else.
Land-A Panda seems to have taken cues from the recent wave of level-based casual games.
- A bunch of individual levels that make up a world which must be completed before moving onto the next batch of levels? Check.
- Puzzle-lite gameplay that can be completed without getting all the objectives? Check
- Collect 3 of an item in one level attempt to get the max score on a level? Check.
Obviously this has worked so well in best-selling games like Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, Burn the Rope, and a million other copycats, so why not follow a formula that works? I guess maybe I was looking for a bit more of an ongoing game than angry birds-styled stages.
The core gameplay is you trying to “Land a Panda” on the platform next to the panda’s partner. This is accomplished by launching the panda out of various cannons and timing the blasts just right to not overshoot platforms or slam into a wall. Protip: Slamming face first into a wall will put a serious damper on your panda’s romantic aspirations.
After the first few tutorial levels I started to get the feeling that I have played a game like this before, then it hit me as my Panda was launched from a cannon into oblivion, missing the target completely…Donkey Kong Country!
I loved those games, and the barrel blasting sequences were some of the most fun and controller-chucking frustrating things in the universe. As I worked my way through the 80 included levels, I kept finding myself hoping the next level will take longer than 30 seconds or so. It didn’t happen.
Either I would keep screwing up my trajectory, making my attempt pointless, or I would miss my timing so my poor lovestruck panda would meet an untimely death in some off-screen endless pit. (Ignoring the fact we have no idea how our panda protagonist’s partner gets to the location where she begins each stage, and what happens to her when we fail….or how they both leave the platform when we succeed…..) I was wanting a level that was a humongous chain of barrel blasting action, and nothing more. That isn’t in this game, much to my chagrin.
Land-A Panda’s graphics are top notch, right up their with Meow Meow Happy Fight, cuter than they should be and vibrantly colored. Not much else to say on that front. You either love the graphical style or you want to take a flamethrower to every smiling panda you see.
The game does get devilishly hard as the levels continue, but it isn’t anything that can’t be overcome by taking a break from landing pandas then coming back with a clear head.
Land-A Panda has Game Center and OpenFeint features, whichever is your pleasure, so it fills that achievement addiction that I have, and makes me want to go back from time to time, which I probably wouldn’t do otherwise.
In Conclusion
Overall the game is decent. The problem comes from my desire to enjoy the mechanics the game offers for an extended period of time. If you are looking for a decent casual puzzler with super cute panda graphics, grab this game. (especially if you enjoyed the Donkey Kong Country games) If you are looking for something more substantial than 80bite-sized levels, you may want pass on Land-A Panda.
NOTE: Big Pixel Studios has actually just dropped the price of the iPhone release of Land-A Panda to FREE for a limited time, so make sure to grab a copy.
