Armillo (Wii U) Review

In Armillo, players take control of a space-dwelling armadillo of the same name whose planet has been invaded by the evil Darkbots. Many of the inhabitants get encased in crystal and it is up to him to rescue his buddies and save the day!

This is not the standard platform affair - it all feels a bit like a combination of Super Mario Galaxy and Super Monkey Ball, with Armillo himself being much like Sonic the Hedgehog. Roll, jump, and dash around the various planets on offer, saving Critters and eliminating any Darkbots on the way. Each level has a set path, which is indicated by the use of walls and barriers placed around the planet. There are, however, multiple paths in some levels that are only made accessible once a certain power has been purchased from Critter Corner.

Throughout the planets there are teleportation devices scattered around, which send the protagonist to a parallel universe when he rolls over them -- he can only survive for a short period of time in this dimension, which makes for an interesting gameplay mechanic as there are puzzles to be solved and obstacles to overcome in these areas. Similarly, there is a timed event at the end of each level known as the "Dark Moon" - essentially a bonus stage of sorts where a large amount of orbs can be acquired. The orbs collected during the Dark Moon and throughout the planets can then be spent in the shop.

Critter Corner can be visited when on the Level Select screen by simply tapping up on the D-pad. In here, players can access the shop, see statistics about the currently selected file and also access the secret stages.

Several useful items can be purchased from the store, such as upgrades to Armillo's health and lives, items that yield more time in the Dark Moon and parallel universe, a power-up that makes nearby orbs fly to the character whenever the boost is used, as well as items that make it possible to destroy special blocks, meaning earlier levels can be replayed and new areas accessed.

Secret levels are unlocked by finding Orb Cubes in many of the main levels and are played in a 2D perspective, also equipping Armillo with the ability to perform a double jump, allowing him to reach higher places than in the 3D levels. The 2D stages make the game play more like a traditional platformer, with a time limit tacked on to artificially increase the difficulty.

Unfortunately, the frame-rate takes a dip occasionally, even in the most unlikely places. This is due to the current method that is used to load the game's assets into the buffer memory. Fuzzy Wuzzy Games has acknowledged this and stated that it is currently working on a patch to fix these issues. In the meantime though, it has kindly asked that players simply replay the level after the assets have been loaded, as this eliminates most of the issues.