Renegade Kid is most known for it's graphical innovation with Dementium The Ward for the original DS. Their eyes are set on rebringing back the days on the NES with Mutant Mudds for Download on Nintendo Eshop. The game comes close to emulating the style of popular NES titles like Darkvoid, Super Mario Bros and Mega Man while incorporating some 3D mechanics which will remind some gamers of Wario Land on Virtual Boy.
The demo can be played for about 30 uses before it expires
You play 4 different levels in the demo which show you how the game works. The goal in the game is too make your way through the levels to reach the exit without either dying or falling into a bottomless pit or into lava. Sadly there are no checkpoints here so dying means restarting the whole level from the beginning which will become frustrating later on. There are about 100 Diamonds to collect in each level and collecting these will give you 100% completion. There are also some secrets but I'm not sure what they're like in the full version.
The gameplay takes place on the touch screen while the bottom screen shows the Time Limit and current Diamonds you collected throughout the game. You control your character using either the Circle pad or D-pad while you use B or A to Jump and X or Y to Shoot. Whenever you need to Jump down from a ledge you can Hold Down and then press the Jump Button. You jump from platform to platform and when in the air press Jump again to use your Jetpack which allows you to float for a brief second. You can shoot while moving, standing, crouching or floating, it would have been nice if you could shoot at an angle to shoot at airborne enemies. Some enemies are stationary but they can shoot back while flying enemies just follow a simple pattern.
Another mechanic is that stages will have platforms that make you leap into either the Background, the Frontground or the Foreground which makes great use of the 3D gimmick which believe it or not it was used before in Wario Land for Virtual Boy.
While the game is mostly simple but later levels will have trick platforms which will confuse you by constantly making the platform disappearing and reappearing every couple of seconds which does become annoying when trying to make your jumps. The best way is to wait for that kind of platform to fade and immediately jump onto it and then jump to another platform to safety. Despite this annoyance Mutant Mudds Gameplay does an excellent job of remembering the classic days of gaming
Mutant Mudds digs itself into the graphics of the 8 bit NES. Every detail and pixel is very nostalgic and does present itself very well as such. The 3D effect is actually pretty effective for the overall backgrounds. The music tracks is also very nostalgic with well composed 8 Bit tunes alongside the sound effects.
Mutant Mudds is like reliving the history of the NES which is a good thing for retro fans. For a Downloadable title it's quite enjoyable but offers a very steep challenge from start to finish. If you're old school then this game is worth downloading for your 3DS. Maybe if I'm nostalgic enough maybe I'll download the full game and see how old school I get.
Game Title: Mutant Mudds
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Genre: Platform
Developer: Renegade Kids
Publisher: Renegade Kids
Demo Released: July 6th 2012 (Europe)
Date of Full Game Release: January 26th 2012 (North American), June 21th 2012 (Europe)
Age Rating: ESRB: E, PEGI: 3
Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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