Scarygirl

Originally an online comic; welcome to the weird and wonderful world of Scarygirl. She is an orphan, but not your average orphan. Brought up by an octopus named Blister, she has a tentacle for one arm and wears pirate clothes found on the sea bed by her foster dad. She is guided by Bunniguru, who is exactly as he sounds, and is one day sent on a mission by Blister to save the Tree of Knowledge.

The game itself is a mostly 2D platformer with a quirky and interesting look, lifted straight from the comic. Whilst the platforming maybe 2D, you do have to look out for traps and enemies in the back and foregrounds, giving it a unique twist on a genre done to death. Scarygirl uses her tentacle in order to help traverse the landscapes with it enabling her to grab items, attack enemies or even hover like a helicopter. Bunniguru dojos can be found to teach you moves along the way. Additionally, you will find wandering shops, in which you can upgrade your Scarygirl by buying new moves, or even attachments for her tentacle to help her fly for longer, swim faster, attack quicker, etc. Of course, all this involves payment, and you’ll find your stereotypical gems along the way to use as currency. You can also be helped by Bunniguru by getting a second player to engage in the drop in/drop out co-op. Of course, we still need a special move, and that involves fighting to fill up your rage meter. Once full, Scarygirl can unleash a monstrous form from within her to create one-hit-kill attacks. The effects are brief, but devastating.

What begins as a peaceful experience soon ends up frustrating, unfortunately, as the challenge curve accelerates quicker than you can upgrade. Additionally, fiddly controls will leave you wanting to throw a pad. Whether it’s picking a path in the foreground, trying to aim your throw, or just fighting some of the tougher enemies, the controls are imprecise and allow you no option to switch to the good old-fashioned d-pad.

As you continue the story, you’ll find the imagination of the developers obviously ran short, as you will find yourself battling swarms of the same enemies with no checkpoints whilst locked in one screen. It seems that Scarygirl suffers from that well known XBLA problem: extending the longevity by making you do huge chunks without a checkpoint, and throwing impossible numbers at you (N.B. Even with these cheap deaths extending my time with the game, it was still completed in less than six hours). Whilst earlier levels can be challenging in an oldskool, “Yes I’m that damn good”, kind of way, by the end of the game you’ll just find yourself grinding your way through, thinking of all the good platformers. Having first been delighted with the quirky look of Scarygirl, I was then delighted when I’d finished it.