GDC 2011: Hands-on: Okabu - Preview
by Karl Koebke , posted on 05 March 2011 / 3,110 ViewsOkabu is the latest game from the guys at Hand Circus who created the Rolando series. Sure it looks a bit childish based on the visuals, but I’ve played some games with childish visuals that actually ended up being a ton of fun (LittleBigPlanet 2 being the best example that comes to mine). The issue with Okabu that what I saw makes me worry it’s not just the visuals that are childish.
You control two “cloud whales” that have the ability to dunk themselves in liquid to transport it or suck up objects to use as projectiles. By pressing X you can dunk in a liquid and pressing X again on land will expel the liquid. Holding Circle brings up a reticule and when you let go your character will spit whatever he’s carrying in that direction. As I mentioned before you have two “cloud whales” and can switch between the two of them with triangle.
The village that I started in welcomed me cordially and directed me toward their village elder, but before I could get there I needed to wake up the gate keeper. Alright, dunk myself in some water and rain on his head and he’s awake. After that the villagers wanted me to help them water some plants, so I go dunk myself in water again and water the plants. My entire time with the demo was filled with these overly simplistic little fetch quests involving either spraying water or shooting acorns. It got a little better at the end when I had to make a line of oil from a fire to some explosions but that’s as harsh as the puzzles got. It all came off as something made for children with simple cute puzzles that require nothing more than doing what is asked of you.
This may sound like a huge downer, but I kind of wonder if the issue isn’t the part of the game chosen for the demo. It makes sense that an environmental puzzler game would start out overly simple to get you acclimated, but it doesn’t make for a fun demo and makes the game come off as overly childish in gameplay as well as visuals. It seems like you could get some reasonably hard puzzles in the game by forcing the player to use the two cloud whales for two different actions, but if the game doesn’t get beyond the level of what I’ve seen then it isn’t likely to keep anyone out of grade school entertained.