Usually Spirit Possession ends badly with a person vomiting pea soup or screaming ancient obscenities at a priest but in the Ancients of Ooga, possession is a good thing because you are helping an ancient spirit possess its worshipers in order to save 7 tribes from destruction.
Following in the platform genre of games like The Lost Vikings, Ancients of Ooga puts you control of the members of the Oogani tribe, a bunch of small gremlin like creatures who’s 7 separated tribes have been enslaved by the more powerful Booli creatures. It’s up to you to use the powerful spirit of Ooga to possess different Oogani in order to complete level puzzles, save other Oogani, and ultimately reunite the tribes and resurrect their fallen chiefs to defeat the Booli creatures.
Each level will be a maze of puzzles you must use various items and multiple tribe members in order to solve. You start with at least one Oogani per level to possess but as you find and save other members of your tribe you will be able to possess them for additional help. Some tribe members will not be capable of possession but they will provide you with helpful tips through the level.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHBNxy0V824[/youtube]
You can pick up items throughout the levels that can heal you, open doors or have a special effect on your active Oogani. All items can be carried within the mouth of your Oogani and then spit out at a later point in the level – this comes in handy if you need to climb up something and still carry the item with you. Edible items must be swallowed after placed in the Oogani’s mouth in order to take effect. Later on, you will develop the ability to swallow other tribe members in your mouth and spit them out in a different spot.
Your Ooganis will develop powers as you go through the levels like flying, fire breathing, hovering and flood conjuring. You will find these powers by eating various items you find along the way. Some effects will be permanent like fire breathing, while others will only be temporary like the hover effect.
The puzzles are pretty straight forward: you must open gates by pulling levers, sacrifice a few tribe members to move on or sometimes grab elements for a bonfire in order to revive fallen tribe chiefs. You’ll also have to use your new-found powers and various tribe members in order to solve these levels. Don’t expect a huge amount of challenge here. Most puzzles are pretty easy as long as you explore every inch of the level and pay attention to every little item available to you.
There’s a co-op multi-player mode where you can play through the levels with a friend sharing the same level objective. This is a good way to play through the game if you want to play with a less skilled person.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w46wOHsLfNM[/youtube]
The graphics remind me a lot of Crash Bandicoot in terms of style. The characters are all wacky looking cartoon models with the big bulging eyes and the huge mascot style bodies. The humour in the game might be funny to little kids or just guys who haven’t grow up yet, but I didn’t really find it all that laugh out loud funny. I wasn’t all that impressed with the environments either, which were all your typical levels like the jungle level, lava level, etc. Is there like a written rule where all platformers must have lava, jungle and ice levels?
With 7 chapters to complete and roughly 9 hours of gameplay, Ancients of Ooga is definitely a decent game for your buck and a nice addition to any family gaming library. The co-op mode, goofy humour and easy puzzles makes these a great game to play with your kids but this game may come across as too easy or too goofy for serious adult gamers, or maybe I’m just too old to find vomit humour extremely funny anymore.
I summon a 7 out of 10 spirits for Ancients of Oooga.
