Scarygirl



Developer: TikGames

Publisher: Square Enix

Consoles: PC, PS3

Genre: Platformer

Release Date: Jan 18th, 2011

Local Capabilities: 2 Player local Co-op

Scarygirl is based on Nathan Jurevicius’ novel, Scarygirl. For those of you unfamiliar with Scarygirl, she’s an abandoned girl who was discovered by Blister-an octopus. Blister not only gave her a name-Scarygirl-but he also went underwater to find her clothes-that’s why she looks like a pirate. He also built Scarygirl a home. As years passed by they grew close. Scarygirl kept having dreams about a bearded man, then one day-under her home-Scarygirl found a giant guru rabbit, along with his sidekick. The rabbit suggested a journey, a journey which would lead her to the city where should would find this bearded man. That’s the very story behind this game.

My Impression:

I quickly fell in love with the world Scarygirl wanders, it feels dark-even though there are plenty of well-lit areas. The world of Scarygirl reminded me of the movie Coraline. Having local co-op is always a nice feature, you never know if someone wants to join in on the fun. The story itself is interesting-I mean you got a cool pirate looking girl who’s raised by an octopus, and goes off on a journey because a rabbit tells her it’s good for her, basically. I found the artwork-whether I was playing or waiting on a loading screen-to be really cool. Scarygirl reminded me a lot of Donkey Kong games for the SNES, why? It’s a fast paced side-scrolling game and you’re never in one particular place. At times you might be in a forest, a city, underwater, the snow, industrial areas. There was a wide range of levels that really made it feel like an adventure!



Controls:

The controls were basic side-scroller controls-which of course include easy attack combos. I found Scarygirl’s gliding ability to be a cool, but sort of annoying thing at times. Why? It only takes one attempt to make her jump her highest-which is cool-but holding on to jump automatically makes her glide. Personally I’d prefer to push jump a second time because it would make landing in small areas much easier-but eventually you do get used to it, so overall it’s cool. I found it extremely cool that Scarygirl can leave enemies stunned, grab them, and either toss them or smash them-even to an enemy! Scarygirl can roll, glide, use a force field, whip enemies, toss them, and smash them in together. Overall the controls are great, even with basic controls, Scarygirl stayed a fun game.

Visuals:

The graphics were perfect and appropriate for Scarygirl. Scarygirl is a 3D side-scrolling cartoon game, so you can’t really ask for lifelike graphics. The only thing to really hope for is that the characters don’t come out as 64-bit characters. The characters have smooth textures, very similar to the ones of a modern day 3D animated movie. The oil paintings on the loading screen are nice to look at. The overall artwork for Scarygirl is fantastic; I could play this game on mute and still enjoy it-not that I didn’t enjoy the audio.



Audio:

Like the visual part of the game, the audio was well suited for this game. Nothing was out of place; it truly made me feel as if I was the one on the quest.

Final Thoughts:

Scarygirl is like a modern day SNES type game-to be honest, it reminded me of Donkey Kong Country 2, partly because of the gliding. Scarygirl is a really fun game well-made game. Do I see myself playing this game after I beat it? Possibly from time to time, I tend to finish the story and that’s that. Who would I recommend Scarygirl for? Arcade gamers, casual gamers, fans of the Scarygirl brand, and Tim Burton fans? Why Tim Burton? It’s the sort of world he would create, I love all his work and thankfully Nathan Jurevicius gets to introduce people to the world of Scaryworld. I was very impressed with the artwork-if you can’t tell already. The gameplay was awesome; the audio was well suited for the game. Overall I loved it and would give it a 9/10. It’s a fun game, includes local co-op, everything’s great, but once you beat it, it’s done, that’s it. But it’s definitely a fun game, especially for anyone into side-scrollers.

Final Score: I give Scarygirl a 9 out of 10

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