Mobility Site - PDAmill RATS!! Game

PDAmill RATS!! Game

Summary: Rats!! is a new jump n’ run game from PDAmill. Mortimer, known to his friends as Morty, is a smart rat that lives in Ratopolis, and your job is to help him recover his lost cheese and his latest invention!

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By Bryan Eley (breley)
Reviewer

Product: Rats!! V1.2.1
Developer/Vendor: PDAmill (http://www.PDAmill.com/)
Price: US$19.95
Rating (5 out of 5):

Summary: Rats!! is a new jump n’ run game from PDAmill. Mortimer, known to his friends as Morty, is a smart rat that lives in Ratopolis, a sewer city populated by, unsurprisingly, rats of a “Flushed Away” variety. Morty works in a lab and has created a swell device called “The Awesomizer”, but somehow things ran amuck and his invention was stolen, along with his cache of cheese, and our hero had to grab a personal shield generator to go out and save the day. Cheese, ha, ha, you say? Well Morty has apparently discovered a way to harness cheese as an energy source to power his inventions. Your job is to guide him to his goal of retrieving it all through sewer, ocean, beach and jungle.

Ordinarily I might not be so inclined to help a member of the Rattus genus establishing cities in a “Flushed Away” manner as I’m not sure how comfortable I am with shield-generating rats and missile-launching robots scurry around beneath me. First thing you know, they’ll develop nukes and you’ll see UN inspectors being crammed down local manholes. However, Morty seems a likeable fellow and only seeks to restore peace and order to his beloved city, so who am I to turn him down for help in his quest for cheese and his cheese-powered invention? Ironically, most rats don’t like cheese…they’re lactose intolerant. But Morty and his fellows are a special group, so if they can use and eat it, well, I’m going to do my best to help him navigate his, uh, maze of obstacles to fulfill his destiny.

Incredible Graphics and animation that your eyes will thank you for
Superb playability, with intuitive controls and menus, No Directional Pad required!
Over 35 Beautiful Levels to explore, from the Sewers, across the Beach, and even into a Volcano!
Fantastic Music, Sound Effects, and Voices rendered in ultra-high quality to make our best sounding title yet
Fun Gameplay actions including Running, Jumping, Climbing, Swimming, Bouncing, Reflecting, and more!
Wacky Cutscenes advance the story with great Art, high-quality Music, and hilarious Voice-overs
Loads of objects to interact with including Doors, Switches, Keys, Lifts, Moving Platforms, Traps, and more!
Tons of different enemy types, including swimming, crawling, shooting and of course, Big Boss Battles
Handy Stats Screen displays just how much of each level you've really mastered
Vivid Weather Effects, Visual Effects, Particle Effects, and other great things that end with Effects!
Auto-save keeps track of your progress whenever you really need to put Rats!! down
High score List to show your friends your Rats!! Expertise

Testing Environment:

Axim X51v, Microsoft Windows Mobile 5, ROM version A012 ROM

Installation:

Installation was a snap, and the user is offered the option of trial use or registration on startup.

Gameplay:

Rats!! is a landscape-oriented platform game that starts off with a cutscene giving the general background of the story. He goes out to run some errands, comes back to mayhem and sees his cheese and Awesomizer invention stolen.

The main menu screen. “Continue” allows you to resume the level you are currently on, albeit from the very beginning

In many of the levels, you get a handy, concise objective bubble that provides some clues for you.

By default, the screen is set with visible on-screen controls, handy for those familiar with PSP type game controllers. Arrows indicate movement direction, the gear represents Use, for items like levers or door/passages. The Radioactive icon turns the Shield Generator On/Off. The upper left pie chart indicates shield energy level. As you leave your shield on, the cheese energy gets depleted, and the generator shuts off leaving you vulnerable.

This is the default touchscreen control layout. Note the wedges of shield-charging cheese next to Morty.

The obvious disadvantage here is that you lose visible screen real-estate, and if you’re on a tricky level where you’d like to see what’s in the corner, you can’t turn the screen controls off without restarting the level. Personally I think I’d like something where I can turn on/off the screen controls from the game screen. Myself I opted for the D-Pad/Axim button combo with the onscreen buttons off most of the time.

As a side note, the cheese Morty seems to be fond of is suspiciously similar to the Norwegian cheese Jarlsberg. And since Morty is a brown rat, Rattus norvegicus, or Norway Rat, it makes perfect sense. Norway rat, Norway cheese…? Okay, okay, boo hiss. And now back to the review.

Norwegian Jarlsberg cheese next to my mouse. There’s a bad joke in there someplace…

This is the screen orientation, with the D-Pad and buttons to the right.
It didn’t seem to matter what orientation I had the screen in to begin with;
the game always re-oriented the screen this way.

At the boss levels, I often found reenabling the onscreen controls useful in that I could keep one thumb on the D-Pad and the other on the Shield Generator button onscreen for more rapid response. Most of the time such twitch mode gaming wasn’t really necessary for me, but the boss levels are of course much harder. The other buttons on my Axim X51v that were automatically mapped were Home=Pause, Mail=Shield On/Off, Calendar=Use/Activate (door/portals, levers, etc.)

Just prior to the start of each level is a map that shows your progress in the game. From the screen below, you can see I’ve just gone through a couple levels already. Red spheres indicate completed levels and amber indicates current level.

Morty the Rat starts at the top of the level in the sewer levels, the progresses through a sea channel, to the beach, into the jungle and into the cat levels. Throughout the game are jazzy/swing type soundtracks that fit in nicely with the pace of the game. You’ll know you’ve completed a given terrain type as each ends in a cutscene and Morty’s narrative. I’ve got a loooong way to go at this stage!

Cutscene: From Sewer to Shining Sea…do I really have to go swimming???

In each level, you can pick up items, such as floating gears, cheese, or a milkshake (usually in a hidden or difficult area) for points and shield recharging. The Shield Generator is very important for Morty’s survival. It can reflect or absorb damage from enemy missile weapons and often will destroy any enemy it comes in contact with, though some require longer contact than others.

I, Robot gone red…and a missile-launching one at that getting ready to attack

Oh, I’m afraid the Shield Generator was quite operational when my friend arrived…
…and the robot’s missile bounced back and destroyed the berserk robot

The Shield Generator has an additional useful function. In water levels, it creates a buoyant bubble that allows Morty to float through the water, because without it, he will sink to his doom.

Rat-eating fish at zero-zero! Dive! Dive!

Uh-oh, a smiling shark…where’s that Shield On button?
I’m sinking fast…but what’s with the non-floating life-preserver behind me?

Of course, a combination of turning the shield on/off in watery levels can be handy as there are pickups near the bottom as well. Each type of terrain/environment possesses its own set of monsters to deal with, and occasional weather effects. There are a wide variety of opponents, from malfunctioning robots, gang rats, wasps/hornets, crabs, sharks, jellyfish, piranha-like fish, snakes, cats, and of course, the tougher, more dangerous bosses. Most of the creatures are contact hazards, but some have missile weapon capability.

Mind those crabs; they can be quite a pest on the beach

Red wasps can be tough opponents

Some villains even have some partial resistance to the shield, requiring more than one strike, but you can also jump on top of them to damage them. That can be important if your shield level is very low or nonexistent.

This snake is about to feel the wrath of my shield. Hm, a butterfly…a serpent…
…do I hear the strains of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida?? Well, nope.

Getting around is naturally the real trick, and while Morty can jump, float and run back and forth, there are special items that help him get around and solve some of the puzzle-like obstacles. There are moving platforms, levers and switches and special items like empty clamshells and giant mushrooms that help Morty bounce and jump higher.

Morty needs to clam up. Literally.
Clam shells like these in front of Morty act as springboards,as do tall mushrooms, to help you reach higher areas

Someone else wasn’t so lucky getting to this switch. When the switch is turned on, it will turn green.

Some areas have the more conventional means of going up and down, like ladders.

Morty can climb as well as jump. Note the red star below the score. That’s 1 of 3 secrets per level Morty found.

Follow your nose! This is a rising/falling vertical platform I’m on. Note the unstable darker platforms to the right.

You’ll need to pay attention to the color of some of the platforms. Some platforms, such as the darker ones shown above, will disintegrate after you land on them, so jump quickly! Moving platforms in some of the levels are contrived so as to be clever obstacles. Some moving platforms are arranged to obstruct you if you need to go down by having several grouped together at various heights, but go up if you land on them, requiring careful planning and timing to get by them, and there are some that go down on those levels where you want to actually jump on them to get up. These are some clever traps, and they can be quite challenging and maddening to get by.

Well, better luck next time. Sometime it pays to just get through the level!

After each level you’ll get a scorecard showing your achievements for that particular level, and the option to replay in case you’d like to make sure you collected everything and eliminated all enemies, or just want to get a better score.

Here Mortimer has reached a waypoint. The waypoint flame turns from yellow to green.

Within some larger levels, there are torches that serve as waypoints. You’ll hear a sound and see the flame change color indicating you’ve activated the waypoint. In case you lose a life on the level further on, you will be respawned at the waypoint and not have to hop your way through the previous portions of that level. Fortunately PDAmill designers were kind enough to allow Morty’s shield energy to recharge when that happens.

Time for a scavenger hunt

Some locks/switches require a key to first unlock them, so Morty must scour the level to find them.

The key!!!

Many of the switches or levers will unlock doors or raise barriers, so finding them is essential to completing the levels. This can add to the excitement as you can lose your life if you dawdle on a level for too long. After about 3 minutes of game time on the level, you’ll hear an ominous bell chime indicating you better hurry up as you’ve only got about 90 seconds left! Rats!! doesn’t let you spend an infinite amount of time admiring the scenery, so keep going!

When you activate a lever, you’ll get a quick real-time cutscene of what it is activating, but you won’t always know where that activated item is…

Uh-oh…whose skulls are those? And how to I raise this thing?

Keep an eye out for occasional visual clues, like the “Beware” signs here and there, suggesting something more ominous down the road.

BEWARE?? Looks like some cats were here, and it’s raining.

When Morty finishes a level, the game autosaves in preparation for the next level, and even if he gets eaten by a shark or hit by a crab one too many times on the following level, the game will still allow you to start that level again.

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Here I am restarting the level after falling off the skull onto those spears.

Closing Words

Rats!! is an excellent platform game. PDAmill did a superlative job putting this game together. At first, I admit I though it was going to be a bit, um, cheesy, but I got quite engrossed in playing this game. It became a lot of “What’s up ahead, how do I defeat that enemy, how do I solve this puzzle, what’s over there? “ making it quite addictive. There is quite a variety in Rats!! and there is a little bit of mental effort involved in anticipating enemies, jump placement, when and where to activate the shield, solving obstacle puzzles and so forth. Personally I didn’t care for the time limit killing me off, but that didn’t happen too often. Overall Rats!! is a fun, highly-addictive game.

Pros