Hooga™ Review

By , on December 3, 2010


Hooga™
Download on the AppStore
3 out of 5

PROS

  • Lots of levels with great environments to explore.
  • Plenty of enemies and boss encounters.

CONS

  • Jittery jumping controls; holds and double taps register poorly.
  • Stiff enemy animations.

VERDICT

Hooga suffers for its control issues, turning an otherwise interesting platformer in to something far less exciting.


  • Full Review
  • App Store Info

Hooga by Chillingo and iQuilibrium is a surprisingly large platformer that puts you in the place of an angry caveman out to rescue his bride. And before anyone starts, I'll side-step the whole 'cavemen and dinos didn't exist together' because like any good schlocky period title Hooga is jam packed with anachronisms to keep things amusing.

Much of the gameplay in Hooga follows the usual tropes of a platformer, with pitfalls, spring-pads and ropes aplenty to navigate around each level. Hooga also has a few tricks up his sleeve and with the aid of upgrades and power-ups you'll be able to glide, spin and fart your way past the hordes of creatures around you. Though this can be problematic as the twitchy controls can result in a jump turning in to a glide or a spin without any notice, resulting in instant deaths or wasted health.

There's a lot of graphical variety in Hooga and much of this detail has gone in to the game's level designs with a bit more of a whacky edge being turned towards the enemy art. However while the art looks quite fantastic in screenshots, the rigid in game animations turn many of the game's large creatures in to bizarre high-speed stop-motion caricatures that casually slide about without much thought.

Hooga is a hard game to enjoy and recommend thanks to its many tiny flaws, but those after something more substantial than a quick platformer might be able to look beyond these issues.

Screenshots

Screenshot 1 of 5 Screenshot 2 of 5 Screenshot 3 of 5 Screenshot 4 of 5 Screenshot 5 of 5