My first impression when booting up
Gumboy: Crazy Adventures reminded me a lot of the PSP title
Loco Roco, but I quickly found this to be a very different game. Where
Loco Roco has you bumping and jiggling the planet in order move a group of furry blobs across a level, here you have direct control over Gumboy. In both games, you are trying to move objects into a safe zone, but in
Gumboy you feel like you have more direct control over the situation.
A level in Gumboy typically takes several trips back and forth across the crazy alien landscape of that level. This is because you are trying to guide objects scattered about the level into a particular area near your starting location. In the first levels, this back and forth action is very noticeable since you start by finding the place where small silver dust particles will be generated from, find the switch that releases the dust, go back to the beginning to get the ability to "push" the dust and then you guide it back to the portal that lets you into the next level.
Not every world works in this style. For instance, in the second location, you don't have to "release" the objects that you are trying to get to go into the portal, you just have to get the ability to push the objects and find them and guide them to their destination.
Earlier I used the phrase push, but you aren't pushing in the standard sense of the word. Instead, the pickup that you grab that lets you move these objects creates a magnetic field (of sorts) around Gumboy that causes these objects to go flying away from you.
Other pickups that Gumboy will find and need to use along the way are hiccup seeds that allow you to jump small distances and various morph objects that will change Gumboy's form so that he can travel in air or water easier.