Zak’s Buzzing Adventure | Flyhunter Origins Review

<p>I was taken back slightly when I heard that <em>Flyhunter Origins<&sol;em>&comma; the debut game from new independent game studio Steel Wool Games&comma; was created by a team of animators who have worked on such marvels as Disney•Pixar&&num;8217&semi;s&comma; &&num;8220&semi;<em>Brave<&sol;em>&comma;&&num;8221&semi; &&num;8220&semi;<em>The Incredibles<&sol;em>&comma;&&num;8221&semi; <em>Toy Story<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Monsters University<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Ratatouille<&sol;em>&comma; and many others&period; So to think of that kind of animation translated over into a game I was all but excited to see what they could come up with&period; Though <em>Flyhunter<&sol;em> is aimed at a younger audience&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s also a great game for casual gamers or for someone who wants to enjoy a slapstick animated story&period; Did the artists make a good transition from movies to games&quest; Let&&num;8217&semi;s find out&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"alignnone" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;imgur&period;com&sol;PKo6AqK&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"800" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Flyhunter Origins<&sol;em> follows the misadventures of Zak&comma; a bumbling alien spaceship Janitor who makes just a teeny mistake of dropping the ship&&num;8217&semi;s entire cargo hold onto the planet below&comma; Earth&period; Not only were the captured flies part of that cargo&comma; but also the Captain&comma; who has been sent to the planet&&num;8217&semi;s surface with nothing to defend herself with&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s Zak&&num;8217&semi;s responsibility&comma; you&comma; to venture through treacherous terrain an save your Captain&comma; your Cargo&comma; and your Career&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Flyhunter is a side-scrolling platformer that has action and stealth gameplay spread across both the characters&colon; action with Zak&comma; and stealth with the Captain&period; Zak is a very tiny alien&comma; so small that even a fly is a large creature to him&comma; so almost anything is a danger&comma; from puddles to ants to venus fly traps&period; Armed with a swatter and later on a stun gun&comma; Zak has to take on the wildlife collecting biomass to keep his technology working and rare bug eggs to sell in exchange for weapon upgrades&period; Almost everything in this game can kill you&comma; however you cannot actually die as the checkpoints are Clone-o-matics&comma; machines that create an exact clone of yourself with no other consequence besides falling back to that position&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Once you reach the end of each episode you face&&num;8230&semi; that&&num;8217&semi;s right you guessed it&comma; a fly&comma; in which the game changes into a third person race where you must catch up to the fly using boosts and dodging obstacles before swatting it down to the ground&period; The Captain is not armed with an offensive weapon making all of her levels stealth designed&comma; sneaking through vents and tunnels&period; Flyhunter is definitely a game aimed at casual gamers&comma; mainly a younger audience such as early teens&comma; but I was surprised to learn that it&&num;8217&semi;s a mobile port&comma; making it slightly more impressive in my eyes&period; This does however make the game incredibly short&comma; it took me less than 2 hours to complete the game&comma; although each level has biomass and bug eggs as well as secrets containing suits Zak can wear to collect&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"alignnone" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;imgur&period;com&sol;0C3NBFJ&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"800" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Without a doubt the best part of the game&comma; which is to be expected considering who it is made by&comma; is the animation&period; Not once did the game look&sol;feel cheap&comma; it has smooth animations with a <em>Monster&&num;8217&semi;s Inc<&sol;em>&period; look to them creating fluid cutscenes and really hitting the mark with it&&num;8217&semi;s comedic moments&period; Although the graphics aren&&num;8217&semi;t top of the range&comma; from an indie company they are very appealing with a <em>Monster Inc&period;<&sol;em> style to it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The only complaint I have regarding them is the fact there are almost no settings to alter besides resolution&period; As you can see from the image above the jagged lines on the wings&comma; spikes and especially the swatter are pretty bad&comma; so the addition of anti-aliasing settings would be great&period; The background scenery is also blurred which is a really nice effect and brings your focus to the foreground objects that are trying to kill you&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Another aspect I really enjoy about <em>Flyhunter<&sol;em> is the music&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s quirky&comma; quick and fun keeping you entertained throughout each level&period; The sounds blend in with the surroundings although there does seem to be an occurring bug &lpar;ha&comma; bug&rpar; where upon killing a bug such as an ant the sound of it moving continues after it&&num;8217&semi;s death&comma; which is a bit weird and can make you think there are more enemies around&period; The game&&num;8217&semi;s only just been released so hopefully the few glitches in the game will be fixed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; <em>Flyhunter Origins<&sol;em> is a neat little title whose main let-down is how short it is&period; However&comma; this is reflected in the price at only &dollar;6&period;99 &lpar;£4&period;99&rpar;&comma; making it a cheap game for casual gamers and younger gamers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;