The Adventure Pals is a 2D platforming game developed by Massive Monster, that was kickstarted in August of this year. The game revolves around a boy, his friend giraffe and pet rock, who are on an epic quest to save is Papa from being turned into a hotdog, by the nefarious Mr. B…..yep.
Featured on the PAX Australia Indie Showcase, The Adventure Pals plays like most platformers today, introducing new mechanics and features as you progress through the game. During the demo, I slashed my way through blobs of slime, threw bombs at enemies, and traversed my way to get my giraffe companion Sparkles. It was easy to jump into, as the controls and gameplay felt familiar to other platforming games that I’ve played. The highlight of the game is its quirkiness – the art style and animations are very reminiscent of Castle Crashers with the smooth movements and actions, and the dialogue actually made me and other watching the screen laugh out loud. The game looks to take some inspiration from Banjo-Kazooie, as Sparkles the giraffe can do certain actions and abilities to help you through a level, like its tongue acting as a helicopter propeller to help you glide across big distances.
In the final game you’ll be able to explore five different areas which include ’25 levels, a boss, towns, mini games, shops & other quite interesting things!’ You’ll be able to level up and upgrade your character, increasing different attributes like his damage and defense. Similar to Super Mario, you get to traverse through different locations through the over-world, riding on your Giraffe and skipping along the map to the different levels.
The way I would describe this game to someone is to combine the cartoony art style of Castle Crashers and the gameplay of Battleblock Theatre. If you’re familiar with The Behemoth games, and enjoy their gameplay and humour, you’ll definitely enjoy this game. The Adventure Pals is set to release in early 2017 on PC, Mac and Linux – you can find more information on their Kickstarter.