[Roo Avery®™]

Developer: Strawdog Studios Ltd
Publisher: Strawdog Studios Ltd
Release Date: June 16th, 2010
Genre: Xbox Live Arcade - Arcade puzzle
Price: TBC (probably 800 points)
ESRB Rating: Everyone
XBLA features: Avatar support & Achievements
Players: Single player or 2 player (split screen)
Levels: 144 levels (5 planets to terraform)
Game modes: Mission mode, Time trial and Survival
Screenshots: At end of Preview

Strawdog Studios are self confessed arcade game addicts. Space Ark is a fun arcade game with more than just a hint of retro flavor. Strawdog claim their inspiration came from classic arcade games such as Rainbow Island, Bubble Bobble and Arkanoid.

Space Ark is bold and colourful, almost to a point that you feel like you are watching a Saturday morning CBeebies cartoon. The games logo is bright and overall palette of the entire game is varied with incredibly detailed and beautiful colour schemes. The friendly fuzzy little animals you control in the game, also known as Arkonaut’s, are so wonderfully presented you can’t help but feel warm and fuzzy just watching the introduction sequence.

‘A wandering black hole has damaged a number of planets, rendering them uninhabitable. The occupants of the Space Ark (the Arkonaut’s – a team of space traveling animals) are coming to repair the damaged worlds so that their refugee inhabitants can return.’

Strawdog describe Space Ark as a collect-em-up, and that’s exactly what it is. You need to control your Arkonaut by bouncing him on a blob that resembles whole jelly cake. You need to bounce your animal into the air to collect various coloured bricks, fruit and DNA crystals that are dotted around the playing field. The playing fields are damaged worlds as described above. The story sees your team of Arkonaut’s repair the many damaged planets of the galaxy that have been hit by a wandering black hole, with each successful restoration opening new, previously locked worlds.

On each planet you need to grab a certain amount of the coloured DNA crystals in a row to generate combos. Every level needs a minimum number of combos to complete. You are informed at the beginning of each stage of the total combo you need to generate before you can complete said stage. The greater the combos, the bigger the overall score you get at the end of the round – this will reflect in the online leaderboards too. As you hit these DNA crystals and generate combos, you will leave behind fruit which can also (I would recommend it) be collected and in turn builds up your power meter. Fill your power meter and your multiplier score is increased. Your multiplier score will dramatically affect your overall score at the end of the stage. The fruit you earn acts in a kind of hierarchical system, where three in a row nets you a cherry, and twenty-five in a row for a watermelon.

The game is played using very simple controls. You launch your Arkonaut with the A button and then move the jelly-pad-trampoline-thingy-what’s-it with your left stick or D-Pad. But wait, did I forget to mention that the Arkonaut’s trajectory is also controlled by the right stick? That’s right, left stick for the jelly-pad-trampoline-thingy-what’s-it and right stick for where you want your Arkonaut to go. You need to be precise when placing your jelly-pad-trampoline-thingy-what’s-it ready for the bounce. The dual stick method of control can be slightly confusing to begin, but it won’t take long until you forget what all the confusion and fuss was all about. Better start putting some Exp into your thumb dexterity skill, you will need it…. Wait I just confused my RPG geekness with real life again, didn’t I?

The overall aim of the Space Ark, apart from finding your cute little fluffy Arkonaut’s a new planet to live on, is all about high scores. These can be achieved across multiple stages on 5 different planets (including the ‘Boot Camp’ planet), well that’s just Mission Mode. You then have Time Attack Mode which is all about setting the fastest time possible with the biggest score on each stage. Survival Mode is about, well surviving.

The planets you will be restoring range from arctic plains to rainforests, all as mentioned before, incredibly well presented. As you complete the stages and collect the desired amount of DNA crystals the world you are currently playing on will gradually ‘terraform’. As it does so you will see new plants, tree, terrain and housing units appear gradually as you work your way through planets stages. Only when you have completed the final stage for each level however, will your little Arkonaut settle on the planet and make it his new home.

Are you one of those players that has to achieve a ‘Perfect’ rating where applicable? I know I am. In Space Ark you can really bump up your total score by achieving a perfect rating. To achieve this however you need to collect DNA crystals, power-up bricks, and fruit and ensure you don’t lose a single life per stage. It sounds easy right? But trust me, it’s not as simple as it sounds. Sometimes you need to complete a run of stages like this before a single perfect rating is achieved. Oh you crafty people at Strawdog, crafty crafty crafty!

I lost nearly 2 hours on my first play through of Space Ark, it really is very addictive. The overall game is simple in design, but the amount of depth added is incredible. Did I mention your Arkonaut can get guns as power-ups? You can get a cannon, machine gun or laser to help you on your quest to collect all the DNA crystals. By introducing power-ups like these gradually throughout the game, and consistently, the overall playing area becomes a hive of activity all around you adding to and intensifying the excitement.

Space Ark has been given a release date of June 16th 2010. Packed with multiple levels and modes, characters and some great multiplayer co-op games, if 800MS points seem slightly too much just give the demo a try first. I can almost guarantee you will purchase the full game.

Space Ark is cute, cuddly, bold, bright, and incredibly beautiful to look at. Don’t miss this later in the month.

9/10

Keep checking the XboxLiveAddicts forums for an exclusive interview by me with the Strawdog Studios team coming soon!