Flyhunter Origins

6.75 Overall Score
Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 5/10
Fun Factor: 8/10

Fun platforming action | Great cut-scene animation | Well hidden secrets

Graphical oddities and washed out look at times | Not very long | Blind jumps

Game Info

GAME NAME: Flyhunter Origins

DEVELOPER(S): Steel Wool Games

PUBLISHER(S): Ripstone

PLATFORM(S): Vita, PC, Mac

GENRE(S): Platformer

RELEASE DATE(S): December 9, 2014

I’m always happy to see mobile platformers get released on non-mobile devices because playing platformers with touch controls is about as much fun as eating fried chicken with your feet.  Sure you might be able to get the job done if you have a lot of patience, but it’s going to be uncomfortable most of the time and things aren’t going to go where you want them to.  So when Flyhunter Origins was released for the PlayStation Vita, I took notice.  From the film animation veterans that formed indie dev shop Steel Wool Games, Flyhunter Origins is a competent little game, but one with its share of faults.

FlyhunterOrigins_Preview_1

In Flyhunter Origins, you play an alien spaceship janitor that looks like a cross between a Minion and…umm…something phallic.  While the rest of your crew is in cyro sleep, you crash land on Earth, which causes your cargo of expensive flies to escape, and it’s up to you to get them back.  Compared to the Earth surroundings, our hero is quite small, as you hop from leaf to leaf and get attacked by a variety of insects.  Soon enough you come across a trusty fly swatter, which is your main method of attack.  The platforming is pretty fun, with some tough jumps to make and hidden places to seek out or eggs (the game’s currency), fuel, or secret costumes.  The levels are all fairly linear though, and there is no penalty in dying except having to reappear back at the last of many generously placed checkpoints.  I’m usually a sucker for small dude in a much bigger place settings (Mario 3’s world 4 was a dreamland for young me), so I really enjoyed the atmosphere presented here.  Crawling in and around logs, vines, and ponds was all very enjoyable. Combat is basic while using your fly swatter, and later your stun gun.  Both weapons can be upgraded a couple times with the eggs you collect.  The balance between combat and platforming is pretty spot on, with neither becoming tiresome by the end.  I did have some issues with having no visible surface to land on after I jumped.  You can see where you want to land pre-jump, but once you’re in the air, the foothold disappears on the bottom of the screen.  The screen space could have been better utilized in some of these instances so that you aren’t jumping blindly.

FlyhunterOrigins_Preview_2

Sprinkled throughout the main stages in the outside world are levels where you control a different character inside the enemy stronghold.  These sections take away your fly swatter, and instead drown you in tricky jumps and other various hazards in the walls and floors, as well as replacing the bugs with killer robots.  At the end of every episode, you are tasked with finally capturing the exotic fly by taking flight.  The perspective switches to an over the shoulder view as you soar in and around the various plant life in an attempt to catch up to your prize.  There are a multitude of boost pellets to pick up to help you go faster, but I didn’t really see much benefit in these.  You only seem to actually gain meaningful ground when the game wants you to, whether you are boosting or not.  The gap between you does change while boosting, but not enough to catch up usually.  Other times I would make up a large chunk of ground without boosting at all.  Once you do catch up, hit detection seems off for attacks.  You can tell it used to be a mobile game, as the reticle that appears screams “Touch here to attack!”  Here though, you have to try to line yourself up, which isn’t the easiest thing in the world.  And even if you do feel you’re in the right spot, the hit won’t connect.  The fights aren’t really hard since you can’t die during them; they’re just more annoying than anything.  The weirdest thing in the game though, is the complete departure you take for the very last stage.  I won’t spoil it here, but it felt really weird have that type of gameplay appear only once at the very end.

FlyhunterOrigins_Preview_5

The game is mixed bag visually.  On one hand, you have the very well animated cut scenes.  This is pretty much a given considering a lot of the devs that formed the development studio worked on Pixar films.  The environments themselves are inconsistent.  Some pieces look great, like the flowers and insects.  But I thought more than a few stages had a washed out feel to them, where your alien dude seems to have been shaded to brightly and the stages have a red glow to them.  Even the darker enemy lair stages felt washed out.  I also ran into some graphical oddities and clipping while progressing, and I even had to restart my game once when my character got stuck in a wall.  The background textures aren’t very crisp in general and on several occasions I had a hard time determining if the floor of the stage was water or nothingness due to the lack of water details.  I enjoyed the twangy hayseed in the woods soundtrack quite a bit.  It fit the environment perfectly and didn’t wear out its welcome.  Voice acting and other sound effects are also well done.

FlyhunterOrigins_Preview_4

THE RECOMMENDATION

Despite the graphical hiccups and some other nagging issues, Flyhunter Origins is a game where the fun of actually playing it outweighs the problems it has.  It’s not a really long game, but I would recommend it for fans of the platforming genre, as long as your expectations are tempered.

 

 

Summary

Review Date
Reviewed Item
Flyhunter Origins Vita
Author Rating
31star1star1stargraygray

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Author: Shaun Zimmerman View all posts by
Still waiting for the Commodore 128... Find me on Twitter @Zimm108

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