Flipping black holes. When have they ever done anyone any good? If they're not sitting there, sucking everything in with a force so strong it doesn't even let light escape, they're busy going around the universe, damaging the home planets of hundreds of creatures, rendering them uninhabitable, and thousands of cute, cuddly animals homeless. All together now, big ahhh. Black holes - they're kind of like the ASBOs of space - doing no-one any good, but causing an awful lot of trouble.
And somewhat strangely, this is the story behind Space Ark, a brightly coloured, cute, and rewarding puzzle game, that draws elements from practically every popular arcade game of the 80s. Seeking to rebuild and terraform the previously damaged planets, it's up to a group of space travelling animals, known as Arkonauts, to give the other animals a helping hand, by collecting DNA crystals (which look suspiciously like coloured honeycombs), to restore their home planet to its original condition. As you do.
"Giant crocodiles in the sky, with DNA capsules", as the Beatles would have sung, had they played Space Ark.
But luckily, there's a lot more to Space Ark than just cute animals and bright colours (not that we're complaining about that). If you're familiar with games like Arkanoid, or Super Breakout, you'll be in familiar territory here - but even if you're not, the game comes with a robust tutorial, which explains the concepts step by step.
In order to finish the levels, it's up to you to use the bounce pad to bounce your arkonaut into the sky, collecting a few DNA crystals as he goes, before you try to catch him on your bounce pad, and send him back off into orbit. Different DNA capsules are worth different amounts, and by only collecting capsules of the same colour, you'll gain a combo. Gain a combo, and you'll be rewarded with an item of fruit - throw your Arkonaut at the fruit, and collect it, either with your animal or your bounce pad, and you'll eventually build up a higher multiplier. It's all fairly simple to grasp, and everything's pretty easy to pick up - at least, that is, until you start to want to control where your Arkonaut goes.
The problem here is, whereas on other similar games, bouncing the ball/Arkonaut against the right side of the pad would send them flying off the right, on Space Ark, simply doing that often isn't enough. Instead, you can control your Arkonaut's trajectory by using the right analogue stick, giving him a boost in the right direction, whether it be up, down, left, or right.
Those of you with amazing analogue stick controls will be able to chain together incredible combos in this way, by navigating your arkonaut over huge swathes of DNA capsules of the same colour. Those of you like our resident novice, Sarah, will spend most of their time losing lives on the floor, either because they've got the analogue sticks mixed up, or because they've given the poor Arkonaut a bit too much of a poke in the one direction, and can't manoeuvre their giant space trampoline to catch them in time.
Later levels require a much more complex approach, but they're no less fun.
The controls do take some getting used to, but while it may seem daunting to begin with, you'll find it hard to just give up and abandon it, as the game's just oozing appeal. It's the sort of game you really want to like - and besides, there are hundreds of homeless animals that need your help. And even if you decide you're far too rubbish when you play on your own, you can always resort to that old failsafe of bringing in a friend (or child) in the co-op mode.
Letting you take on the entire single player adventure with a buddy in tow, this is, as is usually the way with these games, where Space Ark really starts to shine. Letting you team up to finish the levels, but retaining an element of competition, as you both get individual scores, the co-op mode works for both types of players - so whether you just want to sit and have a laugh with a friend, or rope your other half in help you finish a level you can't do, you're well catered to here.
If anyone remembers Rainbow Islands, there's more than a hint of that here.
With plenty of levels to keep you going, ever increasing multipliers to seek, leaderboards to let you compare yourself to, and challenge your friends, and the ever illusive "Perfect" ratings to be sought (which are only awarded when you manage to get every single DNA capsule, and every piece of fruit), there's enough to here to keep you coming back for months - and with the addictive co-op mode always calling you back, you'll find it hard to stay away. Let down only slightly by the slightly dodgy controls, Space Ark comes highly recommended.
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
