Antipole (Nintendo DS) Review

Players take on the role of Johnny Hurricane, a lone mercenary enlisted by the government in an attempt to bring down a plague of nefarious robots. Infiltrating their Mothership in search of a potential weakness, Johnny stumbles across a device that makes Antipole more than a regular action platform adventure -- the Gravity Manipulator. The likes of Divergent Shift and Chronos Twins showed how well mirrored gameplay can work, and the recent Mighty Switch Force from WayForward is a superb new entry into the burgeoning new genre style. However, for Antipole, developer Saturnine Games has attempted something slightly different in the form of a gravity switching capability for the lead character in this portable download title that will set gamers back a mere 500 Nintendo Points.

Stages filled with dark, futuristic, industrial beats are the order of the day, whilst pleasingly tough challenges await around every corner. Whilst the visuals of the diminutive DSiWare edition do not quite match the sharp, crisp graphics found in the PC and Xbox Live versions, Antipole still succeeds in being sufficiently detailed to make those inch-perfect leaps across gaping holes, over (and under) dastardly rows of spikes, and past treacherous pools of acid no harder than they should be. This is especially important when all the while players have to utilise Mr. Hurricane’s handy laser blaster to shoot down pesky tin cans trying to sap precious hearts from his energy bar. Choose to race to the finish line in record time and achieve a special Gold Medal for beating set targets, or take the action at a more sedate pace; either way will result in some brilliant enjoyment throughout, even if the gruelling nature makes for a rough ride later on.

The Gravity Manipulator acts as a superb piece of kit that bolsters what would still have otherwise been a solid time trial-esque platform title, but just one without anywhere near as much to sink your teeth into. When attempting to work through the cleverly crafted stages to reach the finishing point, plenty of robotic critters will hinder progression to the best of their ability, yet Johnny Hurricane has the power to twist physics on its head (literally!) and encourage hapless enemies to wander into space or onto a pit full of sharp objects, sending them off to the mechanical graveyard in the sky. Not everything around the protagonist can be thrown into disarray, though, with only moveable objects within a certain proximity to the hero flipping from their current state, meaning that whilst the easiest route may be to reverse gravity from afar, there is still some challenge involved at times to get close enough in order to actually instigate some physics manipulation. Also, switching gravity to avoid a pit of spikes can be awkward when enemies come bounding along at the same time, leading to some extremely careful on-and-off changes required to almost bounce through thin air on the route to safety in the wisest possible manner.

There are some bosses to overcome, all of which make smart use of the gravity switching feature where their projectiles can be used against them, and there are three special coins hidden around every level that when collected unlock extra challenge areas for anyone whose nerves are still intact after the arduous, highly tense main mode. As players work their way through the sixteen levels (with four boss encounters), the difficulty level gradually increases in a very fair manner, and the fact that there are infinite lives and a healthy dose of check points so stages do not have to commence right from the very beginning -- one of the major drawbacks in Chronos Twins DX -- definitely makes for a better experience on the whole. Also, as a special treat for Nintendo owners of the game, the DSiWare version of Antipole features a special bonus mode for those that also downloaded Saturnine Games’ Cosmos X2. Have both games on the same DSi, DSi XL or 3DS system and it automatically unlocks a mode enabling players to go through Antipole using the three weapons from Cosmos X2. This sort of interconnectivity is wonderful to see and hopefully becomes a feature of many other download games in the future.