Armikrog (Wii U) Review

The game shares DNA with creator Doug TenNapel's 1996 point-and-clicker The Neverhood and it's easy to spot. It's a visually striking claymation adventure just like its cult classic spiritual predecessor, with suspiciously similar character design to boot. It would be easy, then, to expect such a game to share The Neverhood's surprisingly good plot, or fellow TenNapel creation Earthworm Jim's trademark humour - unfortunately, this is where Armikrog falls apart.

There's a promising start as the game's premise and main characters are introduced in the form of a musical intro - and as video game songs go, it's uncharacteristically catchy - and it's genuinely fun to watch, assuring players of a vibrant, funny experience to come. Immediately after, however, protagonist Tommynaut and his sidekick BeakBeak are thrown into a desolate landscape with a dull, obtuse sliding block puzzle in their way.

The introduction is the most exciting the game's story ever gets - it progresses at a plodding pace, and the stakes never really feel too high, with lifelessly animated and voiced characters that lack any kind of personality. The humour is light on the ground too, with only a few scarce funny moments, and the ending feels rushed and unsatisfying, owing potentially to a small, Kickstarter-funded budget that just doesn't stretch to lengthy claymation cutscenes.

Perhaps an uninteresting story could be forgiven if Armikrog was a genuinely fun game to play, but it feels lacking in this regard too. It's demonstrably old-school in its design: expect plenty of backtracking, note-taking, and repetition here. The streamlining of modern point-and-click adventures shows up this classic take on the genre and makes it feel deathly boring, and the solutions to puzzles (even those right from the off) are far too often incredibly obtuse.

That said, there is definitely an audience out there for Armikrog - after all, it did attract almost a million dollars on Kickstarter back in 2013; it just so happens that it's an incredibly niche one. There will definitely be players out there hankering for a return for the point-and-click games of yesteryear, and while the gameplay definitely expects too much of genre newcomers, more seasoned veterans may find themselves more at home in jotting down symbols on a pen-and-paper, or backtracking through empty, previously-explored areas.