The Digest: NinjaBee continues to show what it takes to make a good Xbox Live Arcade game. With simple gameplay mechanics and a genuinely funny sense of humor, Ancients of Ooga is something that everyone should at least try out, and that every platformer fan should pick up.

THE FACT SHEET

RELEASE DATE: June 30, 2010
PUBLISHER: Xbox LIVE Arcade
DEVELOPER: NinjaBee
ESRB RATING: “E10” for Everyone 10+
GENRE: Action & Adventure, Platformer

PRODUCT OVERVIEW:
From Xbox Live Arcade veterans Ninjabee, creators of XBLA hits such as Band of Bugs and Cloning Clyde, comes Ancients of Ooga, the spiritual successor of Cloning Clyde. Players will take the role of an ancient spirit, with the ability to possess various tribe members in your quest to revive various tribe leaders, and fight back against the Boolis.

PRODUCT FEATURES:

• Local Coop with one other friend.
• Over fifty levels.
• More Puzzles later on via DLC.

The Ooganis, the main species in the game, are admittedly a rather selfish bunch. That’s how they got into this mess! You see, the Boolis, a stronger, bigger species, started offering them some delicious, but intoxicating, hypnotizing slugs. While the hypnotism didn’t effect them immediately, the Boolis were soon able to convince the Ooganis to cage their tribe leaders, and the Boolis soon burned them to death. With no leaders, the Boolis soon turned every Oogian into their slaves.

You, an Ancient Oogian spirit, have been called upon as a last resort to revive the tribe leaders, unite the tribes and fight back against the Boolis by solving puzzles, using teamwork within tribe members, and of course, taking out some Boolis in the process.

That’s right. In this game, you’re an ancient spirit. How awesome is that?

As with every ancient spirit, your major profession is, of course, possession of the living. At any time, you can swap between any of the tribe members willing to help you by pressing either RB or LB. You’ll be using this constantly throughout the game, as you’ll have many Oogani to possess. Usage of almost every Oogani will be required to pass the over fifty levels.

Each Oogani you are able to use has his part in a level. Some may only be able to get to a certain location before being unable to go any further, such as being unable to pass a certain door. Some things that need activating may require multiple Ooganis to use, so don’t let too many of them die!

Later on, you’ll be able to use special abilities given to one specific Oogani during a level, given to you by shamans scattered throughout each level. Since this Oogani is the only one that will be able to use this ability during a mission, they all start to become more individualized, rather than all being the same person, just with a different color palette. These powers can range from fire breath, to being able to cross over certain obstacles without taking damage. Usually these powers relate to the characteristics and habits of the tribe that specific Oogani comes from, or the certain Oogani’s personality.

You can also find scattered throughout each map things you can eat, like fruits, and logs, and rocks. Yes, you can eat rocks. Mmm, mmm!

While some of these seem to have no benefits other than to be as paperweights (for example, a pile of wood,) they can be used as “keys” for activating a door. Some doors require a wood log to open. Just place the log on the platform, and watch as it levitates into the air and teleports into another dimension!

…well, okay, maybe it doesn’t go into another dimension, but it does levitate, and disappear, similar to being shot by a plasma ball in Half Life 2, minus the burning up. It doesn’t make much sense in the Oogani world, but damn, does it look cool!

Some things, on the other hand, will actually give your Oogani a helpful side effect when eaten, like having the ability to float into the air for a few seconds. You can put them in your mouth for safekeeping, but it doesn’t take effect until you actually swallow it, which is very helpful.

The game supports local cooperative play, with one more friend at your side. If you have the chance to play it in coop, I would highly recommend it. Cooperative play in Ancients of Ooga is the best way to play. Helping each other solving puzzles and spliting up to complete objectives faster is some of the most fun you’ll have in Ancients of Ooga.

The option to use more Ooganis isn’t made as clear as you’d hope at times. For example, you’ll use all the other Ooganis you think have available to try to get around a door, with seemingly no possible way to pass it, until you realize you’ve had a new Oogani to control the entire time, which just happens to be the one that’s on the other side of the door you’ve been trying to pass for the last five to ten minutes.

The ability to move towards and away from the camera can throw you off sometimes, as well. Buttons you might have to jump on to activate may be a bit farther back than you realize, and for a few short seconds, you’ll question yourself as to why the button or platform isn’t working. It’s not a major issue, as you’ll quickly figure out you need to move towards or away from the camera, but it’s a bit bothersome the first few times. At one point, I stopped playing for a day, then came back to realize there was a lever I had to pull that I had passed by dozens of times, which I didn’t find the first time because it had initially looked as if it was in the background.

There are a few visual issues, which might end up being even more of an annoyance than any of the gameplay issues. The framerate specifically isn’t up to par as you’d like, and at times, it can look like you’re in the middle of a laggy multiplayer match from a game such as Modern Warfare 2, or Battlefield: Bad Company 2. The seemingly lack of any anti aliasing is an eyesore as well, with jaggie edges everywhere.

Conclusion:  There are a few small issues, but overall Ancients of Ooga is one of NinjaBee’s best platformers so far. I admit I couldn’t get into Cloning Clyde, one of their earlier Xbox Live Arcade releases, but I found Ancients of Ooga to be very addicting, with or without another person. While it’s not perfect, it’s definitely one of the better releases to come out on Arcade in a while.

Single Player: 4/5 | Multi-Player: 4/5

Special thanks to NinjaBee for providing us with a copy of the game for review.