Mekazoo

[h1]A 2.5D Action Platformer[/h1] https://youtu.be/RSWz1oFWzNg + The gameplay is incredibly fun. It reminds me a lot of Sonic as the levels are designed to be almost like roller coasters as you speed through various ramps, loops, slings, and cannons. + Environments are absolutely stunning with rich and vibrant colors alongside a ton of detail. This game is just as enjoyable to watch as it is to play, very surprising how much work went into the backgrounds. + Fantastic level design + Morphing into different animals changes up the game and allows you to combine abilities to make it to new previously unreachable areas.

This game is fantastic. I've had this game on my radar for over a year, patiently waiting for its release. I have to say it's extremely fun. It may feel different controlwise to other platformers - at least for the first hour I had a bit of trouble adjusting. Do stick with it as the game's movement complexity is arguably it's best feature. Probably the two most important things this platformer can offer in 2016 are: a distinct/unique gameplay feature and a control scheme to deliver said feature well. I never get bored with the simplest platformers when control is top notch, but a lot of players really do get bored of simple gameplay. Mekazoo gives players wanting more complexity something really special. There are 5 characters unlocked over time that possess a single 'move' or defining mechanic and this really makes this game different. As characters are unlocked, navigation around expansive environments is achieved by your choice of 2 animals at one time, that can be switched on the fly. You essentially just experiment to see what you can do. Once you get the hang of it the flow feels amazing. It takes time but it really gives the platformer genre a bit of a twist that is very welcome for those tired of simpler titles. Of course a great mechanic needs solid control. I think Mekazoo delivers here. Controls are fluid and quite free flowing (NOT little big planet - more N+ or, slighty floatier than super meat boy). I was worried that I'd find them too floaty but they work well. I can now effortlessly switch between, say, a tongue swinging frog and a kangaroo. It's still precise, just without the extreme agility within the tighter movement of say original megaman. Overall it's a wonderful game, very fun, with great flowing motion that rewards effort to improve. Lovely to look at too. I really think that with enough attention this will be an important title for platformers in general. Edit: Ive removed my one minor initial complaint as it's no longer relevant. I stated I lost view of my character in the depth of the lush environments. This doesn't happen if you decide on a colour you like for your animal that has higher contrast to the background. Character colour can be modified to various neon colours and combos. Last thoughts after more hours logged and all characters unlocked - this game is special and fun. Polished, great level design for slow play or speedruns. Just an amazing addition to the genre. Thanks to The Good Mood Creators for such an awesome game.

I have never written a steam review before, but I JUST have to for this game. There's a lot to say about this game, so grab a drink and prepare for a small novel. Let's start with the gameplay. I, personally, really enjoy it, but I can see it getting a little frustrating sometimes. As a platformer, Mekazoo will have you traverse a variety of levels as various animals with different abilities,e ach with strengths and weaknesses. All of the animal's abilities work very fluently in accordance with the level design, but I found that the Wallaby was hard to control at times which made me a little frustrated. I would be ready to land on a platform next to a wall and find myself accidently barely touching the base of the wall, causing me to bounce off and plummet to my death. The Wallaby cannot hop up ramps, which is a little annoying, but not too bad. Overall, Mekazoo has solid platforming action that is made fantastic by the level design being based around the animals you are given to work with. It is really satisfying to get flawlessly get through a part of the level as you get better with each animal. For the story...well, Mekazoo does not really have one. I really don't mind the lack of story, though (I am playing this game for the gameplay). It's just a regular "go and save all of your buddies" type of games. However, the some levels tell a story of their own, like how some of the forest levels are being chopped up by the similar forces that kidnapped your other animal friends. If you play games for a major, epic story, look elsewhere. The characters (i.e. the animals) are not that deep either, but I love them. They are cute and happy, which is a refreshing change-up from most of the dark, dirty games that are put out nowadays. You can customize your characters with different colors and skins which you unlock with gems that you can gather, giving the animals more personality (I like the "Fantasy" costume which dresses the Wallaby up as a wizard). And finally...the best for last..the music. Oh. My. Gosh. The music. I do not know what they did, but the music IS AMAZING! Like, Old RareWare-level amazing. I have played a lot of this games in my life, but the soundtrack for Mekazoo is EASILY one of the best. While it is not as expansive or elegant as some other games, each song suits the level it is played in so SO well. Even if I got stuck on a part of a level the music would keep me determined to beat it. Some tracks are better than others, but they are all absolute mastercrafts. I cannot stress this enough, but the music is INSANELY good. Ultimately, with the great platforming control, smooth level design, beautiful level artwork, and the powerful, fitting, memerable music, I would recommend this game to anyone who has been waiting for a new, original platformer to come out. It is fast, it is challenging, it is satisfying, and it is DEFINITELY worth the time and money put into it. TL;DR: It's a VERY good game with stunning levels, fluid gameplay, and AWESOME music. I recommend it for platformer fans.

What the f**k? How did this game get so little attention? I am seriously blown away by how good this game is, if you like inventive platformers combined with the lighthearted charm of n64 era adventure games and a funky soundtrack, well this is the perfect package for you.

It's one of those "I wish there was a third option somewhere in the middle" when recommending a game. I'm putting it on "not recommended", but only because of the few issues I had. If they don't look like something you'd be bothered by, go ahead and play it. It's not like it's overpriced. Far from it. It's a pretty enough game with decent audio and the level design and platforming is fun enough (although rather challenging later on), but there's a few kinks that made it frustrating for me towards the end. The first is that the controls aren't always as great as they should be. When playing as the frog, the length of your tongue is rather deceiving and your direction of momentum is also something a bit off at times. At least for me, could be I just suck at it of course. The kangaroo needs some getting used to as well and the climbing for the bear can be rather glitchy in my experience. My biggest frustration however, and the reason why I didn't finish it (I played up until the boss level in the Metropolis area) is the content gating. In order to access the bosses, you need a certain amount of "gears" which are like badges for completing a level fast, without dying and killing all certain types of enemies in it. If you just finish all the levels without really bothering with these optional objectives, you can't fight the bosses right away. For the third area I had about 4 gears short to be able to fight the boss which I got with some extra effort, but now I'm 7 short for the one in the Metropolis area. And honestly, I can't be bothered. I'm not good enough to complete the levels fast or without dying and the enemies you need to kill can be tough to find or you only get one chance to reach them in one run. So I can't fight the boss now (and I think he's the last one). So I can't finish the game. I don't really get why that gating is there. It makes no sense. Why not let mediocre people also enjoy the full game? So if you're good at platformers and are used to speedruns and the like, you might have a better time than I did. But I think it's a damn shame that you kinda have to do those things.

This may end up being a very long review, but I really liked this game so my apologies for the length, and also a heads-up in case you wanted to play it totally blind - I go over some details like level organization within worlds. [h1]Overall[/h1] Excellent puzzle platformer. Very challenging. It could have used a little more polish, but I am thoroughly impressed by it as I haven't had this kind of fun since games like Donkey Kong Country 2, Super Mario 64, and Super Mario Galaxy. If I had to rate the game out of 10, a strong 7/10, but could have been a strong candidate for getting 10/10. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] The game is a 2D platformer with a plane that wraps around a 3D world, and you are a mechanical organism that has access to up to two animal forms, each with their own mode of movement and special ability. Some animal forms offer tools that make some situations easier, making weaving the forms together important when you have access to two forms, but having a deeper understanding of each form is important when you have access to only one form. This has a bit of its own learning curve (I got a little frustrated every so often at first, but it was the fun kind, and I can be impatient at times), and the levels do a reasonable job of providing tools to learn how to use them. Some patience will help since some of the levels do emphasize an animal's weakness more than they emphasize their strengths. Eventually, you might even come up with some bizarre but very helpful tricks of your own! I found these apects to be like puzzle-solving in a platformer context, which provided a deeper look into mechanics that are within that wonderful "easy-to-learn, hard-to-master" zone. The structure of each world is the same, presenting 3 "normal" levels that try to give an up-to-date representation of what you have unlocked so far (some levels having extra features from later unlocks!) The checkpoints are generally very generous, so the game is not so much about rigid definitions of perfect play (not to say that games like Super Meat Boy are bad, unnecessary, or "fun because it's hard", that's just not the kind of game this is) as it is about solving the "puzzle" right in front of you. There are other objectives you can complete that do introduce elements like this, however - but that's up to you and the skills for it come naturally with play. Enemies had a very strange place in this game. They varied from harmless slugs, to robot hornets that shoot stingers, robot-enhanced slugs with snail shells that shoot many projectiles, and many others. Overall, they felt like they had a strange place in the game where they felt like they didn't matter that much until they randomly killed you at some point. To put it one way, it almost works against the game because it feels like an inclusion that was expected of them rather than designed to be there, but in another way it works with the game because it keeps the platforming part feeling purer. The boss designs were challenging, but still very fun. The bosses are mechanical organisms of a similar nature to you, but they are much larger and attack like large, lumbering giants (which they are), and they were interesting variants on the puzzles that the platforming had to offer for you to solve. There are bugs here and there, but they are difficult to reproduce (good for a general play experience, but unfortunate for the developer). [h1]Graphics[/h1] Graphics are vibrant and rich. It feels energetic and lively. I loved how this game looks, and I loved looking at it. Exploring the levels always felt like a fresh new experience. Initially I told myself I'd get 100% of the gears (similar to Mario 64's stars), but the art style is beautiful and getting 100% of the gems (currency to buy aesthetic character customization) was a nice reason to have another playthrough of all the levels with a bit more patience and attention to detail. However, that is not to say that I had no issues. There are some parts where the camera being a perspective camera would lead to some difficulty judging distances towards the edges of the screen (far left and far right), and times when enemy projectiles were nearly (or totally in some cases) invisible due to bright lights in the background. The game also runs strangely (some objects will move in a bit of a jagged fashion) at higher refresh rates, but it still looks very fluid at 60fps. [h1]Sound[/h1] The Quiggles made an unforgettable soundtrack for this game and The Good Mood Creators made an excellent choice in this department. I hadn't felt a game's soundtrack that was this memorable or energetic and so fitting of where it appeared since Super Mario Galaxy. There are a lot of "nice" songs, but there were some great songs that made me feel happier that I bought the soundtrack separately - more of my support going towards good people. It appears as though every level (not sure about the final world) has one song for each of its main 3 levels, one song for its boss, and one song shared between the two "challenge" levels that seem to be recommended after the boss (some of them have higher unlock requirements than the boss). The levels had very modern music which was very refreshing and energizing to play along with, and the bosses had retro music built on a very modern formula which was very exciting to play along with. Overall for the music, the music does a very good job of maintaining the tone for that level. Earlier levels have much more flare in their music to catch your attention and keep you excited to trundle through, then some levels have more chill music for the bits which might need a bit more thinking, some others might have some very basic but strong rhythms to tell you that this section is going to be quite a challenge, and bosses have exciting songs to get you amped to take on a serious challenge. The sound-effects associated with actions are also very strong. They feel lively and appropriate for the very strange context, without sounding awkwardly cartoonish or goofy (even when the panda mode is flailing its arms about to grab something to save its life). What I think could have been done better is maybe audio queues to help with situations where the visuals can't keep up as well. Enemies do make shooting sounds when they fire projectiles, but it's rather quiet and can be buried under the sounds that your character makes, leading to an unexpected death. [h1]Summary[/h1] It's not a perfect game, but it is a very strong game. I haven't had this kind of fun in a very long time, and I want this game to be successful because it's not often I see a game that feels like it was made with so much love and so much passion. Very few games make me constantly adjust how much of the game I want to complete to 100%. Originally I only wanted to finish each level once, but then I ended up getting 100% of the gears on all levels, but I found myself wanting to enjoy the levels, the graphics, and the music so much more that I also got 100% of the gems on all levels. To the people of The Good Mood Creators: What you've created is very special, and it is some excellent work. I'd love to see more Mekazoo in future.

I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes platformers. I first found out about it from videogame dunkey and have been curious about it ever since. Individually, each of the animals you control are unique, but very simple and straightforward, making them easy to play. The real fun of the game is that you have the ability to swap between these animals at instant speed. The levels are cleverly designed to incorporate opportunities for each of the animals to shine, but if you prefer one animal over another, you're able to stay in that form for the bulk of the levels. Completionists will love this game because it gets more and more "mechanically" intensive, but newcomers and filthy casuals will still find a home simply beating the levels and enjoying the beautiful colors.

I absolutely adore this game! Really does throw you back to old platformers as other reviews had said.

This game has one element that really undermines its enjoyment value: The controls are, kind of, broken and buggy as heck. Just like in, so many ways it's not even worth listing them all. And I've had other fun glitchy stuff happen like getting stuck in a wall, a cannon not firing leaving me stuck & having to restart a level, the camera not following me through a tube making it impossible to tell where I am, an entire chunk of the level visually deloading because I went back to a previous checkpoint and then died, basically the works. And the bonus levels are a very, very mixed bag; a few of them are clever, but the "level in a room" ones all suck, without fail. And there's one with the bird where you're escaping from rising lava, and the level is supposed to be designed like one of those chase levels from rayman origins where if you just keep going you'll be fine, except... it never quite works out that way and makes everything way harder than it should be. I did like the last bonus level at the very least, though there were a few bits that were kind of meh, but like, as a whole it's cool. And really, the level design in general is quite good? It makes good use of all five characters and never really feels stale or repetitive, each world has its own gimmicks to keep things fresh and there's 15 possible character inventories making for a lot of interesting pairings. Really, that mechanic on its own makes for a solid game premise and it's executed decently well. Just clearing through the stages normally is never that much of a challenge, but oh boy is every stage jam packed with other stuff to do. Getting through the level in under a time limit, getting through without dying, killing all of a specific enemy type, finding the secret switcher that gives you different characters and forces you to play parts of the level a different way, collecting enough orbs to earn gems, finding the hidden gems... they get a lot of mileage out of these levels but the different ways you play each level make it so it doesn't really get old. And for a $10 platformer there's a lot of content here - heck, even for its original $20 asking price the content is very, very solid. 15 levels that probably take 30-45 minutes each to fully complete, 10 tough as nails bonus levels, 5 boss fights (which, admittedly, are not great boss fights on the whole, but far from the worst I've seen too), even some secrets to find in the hub levels. The game's soundtrack is also pretty jammin', a lot of the hub levels play off one main theme but every individual level gets its own song too. And it's visually beautiful, though I had to turn down the graphics settings to get it to run decently at all - does not seem too well-optimized. But. And this is a big but. The game can be really frustrating for reasons that don't feel like the player's fault. The frog's tongue can just do whatever the hell it wants and getting the swinging physics to cooperate can be a pain. The armadillo is kind of broken in a good way in general but sometimes he will just not boost in the right direction. I have no clue why. Especially when going up walls, sometimes the same inputs will get me a boost up, or a boost down (the latter usually killing me). The kangaroo's controls are really awkward to get a hang of but probably controls the best out of all the characters, I certainly had the most fun with it and doing wall jump shenanigans. The bear is BROKEN AS HECK and basically feels like 100% glitching out everywhere. Most of the times I got stuck in a wall were due to this pest. And he can latch onto walls from way far away. Sometimes has trouble latching onto enemies to kill, it feels inconsistent. He's slow too. Don't enjoy the bear at all. The bird is mostly solid though sometimes he will stop moving fast even though I don't let go of the action button, and the amount of rebound you get when taking damage or bouncing off walls is a bit excessive. On top of that, something that applies to every character is that after you get hit you just can't interact with the floating platforms at all; frog can't grab them, armadillo will just fall through them, same with the roo. Doesn't affect the bear or bird too much but it's just a general nuisance. Basically, at the end of the day: controls are bad, level design is generally pretty good, presentation is great, replay value is high, entertainment value as a whole is middling. I would give this a meh rating if it existed on steam but as it stands I think there's enough to like here to recommend it, even at full price, though I can't say 100%ing it is worth it in the end. I'm just really stubborn.