Platypus Review - PSP

First seen on the PC several years ago, Platypus seems like a keen idea. It’s a simple concept—take all the standards of side scrolling, old school shooters, and tweak the weirdness factor by making the entire game in clay. There have been a couple truly amazing and distinctive claymation games over the years (the Neverhood games), and some other amusing, if middling attempts at utilizing the stop motion, animated style (Clayfighter, anyone?). Platypus is definitely the latter. It’s appealing, but far from imaginative.

Skeet Shooter

As a budget priced game ($20 most places), the flaws in Platypus only seem slightly less pronounced. The set-up? Just imagine every side-scrolling, shooting spaceship game you’ve ever played, and remove any semblance of a story. Why is the game called Platypus? Who knows! Who are you and who are you fighting? No idea!

All we know is that you fly through wave after wave of mindless drones, fight a boss, and move to the next level to do it again. There are 30 levels of clay-exploding madness altogether. If you have a Platypus-endowed friend, the two of you kick clay butt together, which is a welcome touch. The power-up system is rather strange, in that you shoot power-ups to change their type and each has a set time limit.

Clay Power

The starting gun is almost useless, and some of the guns look better than they perform as well. The idea of a time limit on weapons can be rather frustrating, but power-ups appear at regular intervals, so being super gun-less is seldom a worry. There are five different gun types (wide shot, auto fire, sonic pulse, rockets, and a lightning gun), but none of them are particularly creative. You’ll also find pods that circle around your ship and provide extra fire and shield power.

The design concept is sound in Platypus, and the clay graphics are certainly charming. The shooting action is entirely standard, if fun for someone looking for mindless side-scrolling carnage. The biggest problem in the game is simply the lack of interest. The graphics simply aren’t used to good effect here. The landscapes and enemies are boring and repetitive, and there’s almost no streak of humor and surrealism that goes hand-in-hand with this graphic style.

Cracked

Platypus isn’t a bad game. It can be challenging and fun, but most gamers will be left wishing that the clay-based graphics were something beyond mere shallow gimmick. What could have been the modern equivalent to classic bizarre Japanese shooters like Parodius is instead a one-trick pony.

Article by: Jason D'Aprile
Video produced by: Jonathan Solin