Mikey Shorts is the first game brought to you by BeaverTap Games and is a challenging platform game. If you have ever played games like Super Mario or Pizza Boy then this game will be right up your street.
You play Mikey Shorts and your mission is to rescue the poor little people that have turned to stone. You do this by working your way through each level. To save them you just run up to them and then they change into happy jumping people. Every time you save a person you fill a part of the ‘door unlock bar’ at the top. To get through the doors that bar needs to be full. So if you save all the people then the bar will be full and you can smash your way through the doors and complete the level.
The controls are easy to use. On the left are the left and right controls and on the right are the slide and jump buttom. These can be switched around though if you want. Use jump to jump over and across platforms and slide to slide under low walls. There are annoying little robots scattered around that go back and forth trying to push you off a platform or in the wrong direction. Either avoid these by jumping over them or use the slide to smash them away.
Whilst running thorugh the levels you will notice there are coins. These coins you collect all go towards items you can buy in the games store. You can buy different disguises to wear with these coins. There are 6 different environments to choose from in the Story Mode section. All which not only look different but have different obstacles that slow you down. The moving platforms are all different too. Some are moving and others when you stand on them will crumble or start sinking. So you have to look ahead and just remember which platform does what.
It is easy enough to complete all of the 6 modes, but I think the idea of the game is not to just complete the levels but complete it with full stars and this is where it is hard. Depending how quick you are determines how many stars you get and it is not easy to get them! So forget the obsessive coin collecting, these are not going to get you your shiny star. Instead you need to concentrate on getting Mikey moving at speed and if possible with out stopping. So this means no moments with robots in a corner, no falling down into the lava pit just look straight ahead and keep those feet moving.
You can restart your level at any point and as soon as I started messing up or getting pinned against a wall by the robots I restarted. In fact after a while it was more a rage quit restart because I really wanted a 3 star! When you redo a level you can have a ghost of you showing your last highest run. This is great as it makes it feel like you are racing someone and you can see if you are improving.
Once you have competed the 6 levels and got your 3 stars on each there is also a challenge mode. Challenge mode is unlocked after you have collected 25 stars. In this mode you are under a time limit to complete each level and there are 48 to work your way through and again with stars to collect. This mode could take a while and I found some of the levels quite hard to complete before the time ran out, so it will keep you busy.
The game looks and sounds great. The screens and levels are not too busy you can still see what is going on and even when you have worked up a good speed there is no lagging it scrolls beautifully. Even though you can complete the levels easier enough it still offers a good length of gameplay due to the stars you have to collect. Of course there is only so many times you can replay a level so hopefully there will be more to come in the story mode. To be honest though it will take you some time to get the three stars in each level. It is suitable for all ages and ideal for those who like to compete with their friends on Game Center.
Mikey Shorts is a addictive, challenging game and one IÂ am struggling to put down! Download here
