Roogoo: Twisted Towers
Score: 80% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Southpeak Interactive Developer: SpiderMonk Entertainment Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 4 Genre: Puzzle
Graphics & Sound: My love of puzzle games goes all the way back to Alexey Pajitnov's little game about four-block clusters. It has survived Nintendo's fiendishly addictive Tetris Attack. I can credit Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Lumines for saving my sanity during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Every time a new puzzle game is released, I'm always interested to see what it brings to the table. Enter Roogoo: Twisted Towers. The original Roogoo was released on Xbox Live Arcade and PC some time ago, and now the series has made its way to the Wii, complete with a few Wii-specific additions. The game's occasionally repetitive nature makes it one of those "play in short bursts" games, but it's worth a look if you haven't already played the downloadable release. As is the case with most puzzlers (and Wii games), Roogoo: Twisted Towers aims for style and charm over technical strength. It looks like a low-budget downloadable title, albeit one that made the most of its low budget. The colorful worlds and characters are pleasing to the eye, even if they don't particularly look that impressive. Members of the Roogoo race look like a cross between teddy bears and Teletubbies (lacking only the utter creepiness of the latter). From the environments to the Magical Meteors, the game's got an unusual aesthetic that I can only describe in one word: foamcore. Roogoo: Twisted Towers looks like it was assembled at Kinko's... and I think the game is all the better for it. It gives the presentation a family-friendly vibe that is lacking in many other games these days. The audio presentation is unassuming. Much of it sounds cute, yet confident. Since this game takes place in a la-la land of sorts, there is an airy softness to both the music and sound effects. That being said, there's not much to the audio that is particularly noteworthy. In fact, sometimes it can be annoying. Luckily, Roogoo: Twisted Towers is not so much an aural experience as it is a visual one.
Gameplay: Let's face it: puzzle games are not known for their storytelling abilities. Roogoo: Twisted Towers doesn't do anything to change this trend, and it's not that big a deal. However, I'll explain what we have to work with. Planet Roo is under attack by the evil Meemoos. Solve some block puzzles to somehow save the planet. The end. Falling blocks seem to be the foundation of an unwritten go-to template for puzzle games, and Roogoo: Twisted Towers doesn't stray from it. However, the implementation of a new perspective keeps the core gameplay fresh. A number of coaster-like platforms are suspended in the air, each of them containing a number of specially-shaped holes. The game drops a number of different shapes towards these platforms, and it is your job to align the correct hole in accordance with the falling shape's trajectory. There are different kinds of obstacles that you'll sometimes have to deal with, including enemies that block the holes. These guys will keep you from identifying what shape will fit in the hole until you smash them on the head with a block. You can take all these guys out with one block, but once they're all squashed, you'll have to quickly adjust the alignment of the platform so you don't lose the shape. There are some odd skydiving moments that simply don't work. As Roogoo blasts through the air, you'll have to maneuver him to catch as many shapes as you can. It feels very out of place, and it never gels with the rest of the gameplay. Roogoo: Twisted Towers has two multiplayer modes: the two-player Split-Screen Race and the four-player Party Play. The Split-Screen Race is pretty self-explanatory, but the Party Play mode is unique in that it switches players' roles on the fly.
Difficulty: Roogoo: Twisted Towers has a modest learning curve, due to the fact that new mechanics are constantly being introduced as you progress through the different worlds. Many of these twists are not explained at all, so when a colony of bats grabs your stack of triangles and lifts it towards the platform above, you'll have to adapt on the fly. You'll eventually learn to remain on your toes at all times. Mastering the mechanics and becoming a Roogoo Guru... is an entirely different story. Twisted Towers has a variable difficulty level, and you'll have access to three off the bat: Casual, Normal, and Roogoo Guru. The funny thing is that the real challenge rarely comes from adapting to the increased speed of the blocks. Most of the challenge comes from learning to deal with the spontaneous nature of the game. It often feels like the right kind of challenge -- that is, when the Wii-specific controls don't get in the way. Still, after wrestling around with the Wii-mote a bit, you'll find out just how to get the thing to do what you want it to do. It's much more of a pain than it should be, but it's not entirely broken or unworkable. Boss battles are usually the toughest moments in games. I didn't find that to be the case with Roogoo: Twisted Towers. The game always spells out the strategy you'll need to beat the boss. Since that's normally the toughest part of taking a boss down, the only challenge here is in actually putting the strategy to use.
Game Mechanics: A great puzzle game is always the result of a fusion between simplicity and brilliance. Most great puzzle games ignore the notion that complexity equals fun, or even depth. Roogoo: Twisted Towers sometimes struggles with this, as it tends to throw a lot of disconnected mechanics at you at once. Some of these mechanics don't feel like they belong in the game, and it is often difficult to manage all of them at once. Overall though, the control scheme manages to work well enough, despite the fact that it often gets tangled in its own knots. The basics (rotating the platforms and speeding up each shape's rate of descent) are controlled with three buttons. The (Z) button on the Wii Nunchuk will rotate each platform counterclockwise, while the (B) button on the Wii-Mote does just the opposite. Pressing (Down) on the D-pad or (C) on the Wii Nunchuk causes the shapes to fall faster. There are some new mechanics in Twisted Towers that use the Wii-mote, and it's here that the game struggles the most. You can catch blocks that have fallen out of play and dump them into your "lose meter" to replenish it. However, you must point the Wii-mote at the screen while the blocks are still falling. It's kind of a juggling act that doesn't feel very natural. Later on in the game, you'll have to drill through blocked holes in order for the shape to fit through it. You've got to shake the Wii-mote to get the shape to spin. Unfortunately, the motion controls aren't responsive at all, making them much more of a liability than they should be. There is a connectivity function between Roogoo: Twisted Towers and Roogoo Attack! for the Nintendo DS. It's very simple; all you have to do is start both Roogoo: Twisted Towers and Roogoo Attack!. Choose "Wii Extras" from Attack!'s title screen, and then choose "Unlock More Levels" in Twisted Towers's Options & Extras screen. Your DS will communicate briefly with your Wii and you'll immediately unlock an impressive number of bonus levels. If you're a Wii-owning puzzle fan who likes to smile, go ahead and pick up a copy of Roogoo: Twisted Towers. It's far from perfect, but the infectious cheeriness and block-stacking fun is sure to captivate you one way or another.
-FenixDown, GameVortex Communications AKA Jon Carlos
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