Little Acorns: Xbox Windows Phone Review

Little Acorns

As I've said on a few occasions, getting a platformer to work just right on mobile phones can be very challenging for developers. Whether they opt for touch screen controls, tilt, or even a combination of the two, the game will never feel exactly the same as information technology would with a concrete controller. Leave it to the folks at Chillingo (and their "Team Pesky") to create a platformer that non only feels smashing, simply works perfectly in curt doses on the go.

Bad neighborhood

Little Acorns starts out with a cute little introduction that really sets the tone of the entire game, though y'all won't lookout some other cinematic until the ending rolls effectually. Mr. Nibbles, the male parent of a squirrel family unit, returns home 1 day to discover a grouping of malevolent woodland creatures stealing his acorns. Why would they exercise this, since acorns are useless to anyone besides squirrels and oak trees? Maybe they just want to starve the Nibbles family out. Naturally, the object of the game is to get all of those acorns (4000 in total) back.

Four year mission

Little Acorns

The game consists of 80 levels divided up into four years, the 4th exclusive to Windows Telephone. Just like existent life, each twelvemonth consists of iv seasons of five levels apiece. An private level holds a potential l acorns (some of which y'all'll receive from completing secondary goals), so fully completing a whole twelvemonth gets Mr. Nibbles a thousand acorns – that should keep his family fed for a while. Reaching sure acorn milestones unlocks the subsequent years, and so yous tin can eventually skip ahead to a new year without finishing off the old one if linearity isn't your thing.

The main goal of most levels is to collect a certain quantity of acorns and and then attain the get out door. That but unlocks the adjacent level though. To become the full acorn booty, you'll need to knock out the secondary goals. The beginning is collecting 5 fruits that appear after y'all've grabbed all the acorns. Fruits too unlock new visual customizations for Mr. Nibbles (head, face up, body, and ropes). The power to dress your squirrel like a dinosaur or in a tux kinda sorta makes upwardly for the obviously visual design, which I'll address afterward.

The third goal is beating each level's speedrun time, which basically requires a second play through (at minimum) since you lot'll ordinarily need to ignore the fruits to come in under the fourth dimension limit. The speedrun times are sometimes generous, merely often challenging enough that y'all'll accept to play a level nigh perfectly to meet them. They're not unfairly difficult simply volition certainly add a lot to completionists' playtimes.

The fifth level of a flavor requires Mr. Nibbles to not only grab all of his acorns, merely also rescue his squadron of children, whom I similar to remember of as the $.25. They hop around and behave erratically, giving their levels a slightly more dynamic feel. Rescue levels have the same secondary goals every bit regular ones, too.

Baddies and Bosses

Little Acorns boss

In near levels, evil woodland creatures like caterpillars, spiders, and bats will bar our heroic squirrel'southward way. Touching them knocks the Nibster back and turns him green, slowing his move for a few seconds. The only thing that actually kills you is falling into water or running out of time. As you'd expect from a platformer, jumping on the enemies' heads dispatches them, though since they don't add to your score, the chief incentive to exercise and so is preventing them from striking you after on.

Instead of a family rescue, the concluding level of each year is a challenging boxing against a gigantic boss creature. Señor Nibbles can't actually harm these Brobdingnagian behemoths. Instead, he must race to accomplish the go out before they exercise. Get there first and yous win; come in second (as you probably volition on your get-go attempt) and you lose. Boss levels add a welcome dose of tension to the chance.

From platform to platform

Little Acorns

At concluding nosotros approach what Little Acorns does all-time: controls. Knowing that many gamers dislike virtual sticks (though I don't listen them), Chillingo instead opted for simple left and right buttons at the bottom left corner of the screen. They're big and perfectly placed, then I literally never missed 1 by fault. Seriously, I've seen many reports from people who abominate virtual sticks that they detect Little Acorns' buttons perfectly comfortable.

At the bottom correct corner you'll find the jump push button. Once again, it works perfectly. Nibbler, I hateful Mr. Nibbles actually has i more move at his disposal: he can grapple onto certain points with his rope. Y'all just leap in the vicinity of a grapple point, printing bound again mid-air, and you'll swing from information technology. Perfectly efficient. As a huge fan of XBLA hitting Bionic Commando Rearmed, I really enjoyed the Niggling Acorns levels that involved lots of swinging and grappling.

While the controls are adequately simple and the levels start out fairly basic, they do go more circuitous as the game continues. You'll see cannons that shoot your squirrel through the air, glace ice, collapsing blocks, and blocks that can exist switched on and off (sort of like the 'P Blocks' in the Super Mario Bros. series), and other catchy contraptions. They all assistance keep the game fresh and challenging throughout its lxxx levels.

Aesthetics

Little Acorns

Little Acorns uses a flat, geometric fine art style that works perfectly for the designers' goals, only probably won't appeal much to hardcore gamers. Mr. Nibbles and the other inhabitants of Little Acorns are basically squares or rectangles with extremely minimal animation. The backgrounds have a 1960s-era Disney vibe, but could use more layers of parallax and variety. Again, I retrieve this expect is perfect for appealing to kids, soccer moms, and general phone-carrying audiences. I'd just prefer a more artistically artistic style like Aroused Mango used in their equally family-friendly platformer Mush.

Equally for the music, it's as semi-generic equally the visuals, just maybe a bit less pleasing. I'd put it but above lift music or having your foot stepped on, just a piddling below the theme vocal to Jem or eating cold pizza.

Achievements

The Achievements come in 3 basic categories: completing years, collecting all acorns within each year, and performing certain tasks during each level. It should accept between x-15 hours to get all of those acorns, depending on your mad squirrel skillz.

The descriptions for the concluding set of Achievements are awfully vague. What do "Stay a while… Stay forever" or "Sparkle Motion, Swinging and Sparkling" even mean? Thankfully they basically unlock from stuff you'd be doing anyway, and if you somehow miss a few, our own reader Arsenic17's Achievement Guide should help.

Overall Impression

Fiddling Acorns is a very well-fabricated game and a lot of fun to play for a couple of levels at a time. My attention drifts if I try to accept on besides many levels in a row, which I blame squarely on the lack of story and boring aesthetics. Just really, this game aims straight at a wide audition, and most gamers will be pleased with the whole thing, even the looks. My middle even so belongs to Sonic four: Episode I, but objectively speaking Little Acorns works much better as a phone game. If you crave a mobile platformer, you'd be nuts not to become this 1.

Little Acorns costs $2.99 and in that location is a complimentary trial. Get it here on the Windows Phone Store.

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