Full Review

Having an adorable visual style with aural flair is a great place to be at when designing a game, especially one for a mobile device like the iPhone, but without gripping gameplay to back it up it will feel more like an interactive tech demo. Get Outta My Galaxy! (GOMG!) by Ookoohko doesn't hold back when it comes to its presentation and challenges players to master their seed slapping skills with a four-armed space-monster penguin-panda hybrid.

Actually I'm not too sure what the main character Waka is meant to be (other than alien), but it seems that Pikmin-like aliens have started to crop up (quite literally in some cases) across his galaxy and the only way to reclaim it is to travel to each miniature planet while slapping the creatures away. Maneuvering around the tiny spheroid levels is easy enough with basic tilt controls that move you left/right/forward and backward, while tapping the screen will slap one of four arms down to clear out hazards (including grass, vicious flowers and spiky thorns) and enemies in turn. Sensitivity options are available along with three pre-configured tilt settings, though a virtual stick option feels lacking, especially given the similarities gamers will draw between this game and the Super Mario Galaxy series on the Nintendo Wii.

For the most part there's not a lot of challenge to be had with GOMG! as cautiously moving around the level while slapping constantly will eventually win out, but attempting to quickly and efficiently slap your way to victory can prove more challenging as you try to keep ahead of the curve. Blue enemies can spawn new enemies, making them a priority target, however green enemies can spawn hazards that make clearing out the level difficult - the longer you take the more monotonous the game gets, so taking an aggressive approach helps a lot (even if you do end up needing to repeat a couple levels here or there). Unfortunately, despite the unique level variations (including mazes and large slappable objects for physics based fun), extended sessions inevitably feel repetitive.

Get Outta My Galaxy! is more than just a pretty face and when played in short bursts it continues to deliver the same amusing level of fun right until the end. Keep an eye on this title as updates have already addressed a couple issues and with luck future support will help this game to truly shine.

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