Enraged Red Ogre

Four long years have passed since Akaoni Studio released its last game, the PC version of Zombie Panic in Wonderland DX. Who would have expected the Valencian studio to still be kicking? A tiny team of four have resurrected it and created a 2D platformer game for Nintendo called Enraged Red Ogre that fulfils most of the premises, even if it falls short on another of lesser importance.

This angry, red ogre that performs as the main character is the studio's mascot. It has been redesigned in a very convincing 2D pixel style and well animated to tell a simple story of friendship. lies and yokai demons that take you quickly back to traditional Japan. It's exactly what you expect from this Asian influenced studio. The visual work is simple in all elements, but it's well done, especially when it comes to character building and animation. It's more lacking in detail when it comes to building the scenery, but it's never overwhelming to the eye.

The small and tricky Akaoni has a club to attack the spectral enemies he encounters as he travels through the eight worlds of the game. Attack range is basic, complemented by the ability to "fire" attacks from his travel companion, the onibi Blu. He is also able to temporarily infuse himself with elemental spirit energy by killing specific enemies that drop it. This transformation modifies his attacks a little, but does not change the way you play the game. After all, its real use is to be capable of completing puzzles that require ice, wind or fire.

However, that doesn't mean that the action parts of Enraged Red Ogre are a button masher, because although the enemies may seem typical and slow, they are actually positioned on the map perfectly and act with precision to be just enough of a pain in the ass to make the game an interesting challenge. This balance between looking easy and not being easy is the best thing the title has to offer and what is most engaging about it. I haven't done a kill count in the six and a bit hours it took me to finish it (90% completed), but it's two or three dozen. As they don't penalize much and there's a reasonable distribution of checkpoints, it's not a problem.

Many of these deaths happened in fights against a couple of final bosses in the second half of the game. The first ones are very easy, but there are a couple after that which can get you in trouble if you don't act with precision. They are nice, harmless yokai, who are down in four or five minutes, if all goes as planned. The game is not a difficult one, anyway, and you can make your life easier by giving treasures to the blacksmith and recharging on the go with food from the cook. Those are two of the characters in the protagonist's small village, which, although it's as simple as the rest of the game, is worth mentioning for the amount of effort made by this tiny team to add a little more context to their adventure and not just leave it all in menus.

Once you have finished the game, there's no extra hard mode, but there is an endless challenge to get back to the screens: the combo challenges. Enraged Red Ogre is clearly designed for speed running, but not with the intention of completing the game as quickly as possible, just to accumulate as many attacks as possible (in fact, that accumulation increases the ogre's "bad blood". But why is it useful for anything other than the challenge? Well, no idea, because there is no explanation). That level design aimed for acceleration is present in both combat and its platforming sections, which are abundant but basic. The idea was to get a good pace of gameplay, and that is accomplished.

The Japanese atmosphere present throughout the title stands out especially in its curious and unexpected main song, but is ruined by the game's biggest defect: the script. The conversations between Akaoni, Blu and the enemies or the NPCs are just a bit of a mess. I understand the desire to portray the protagonist as a renegade who lives with humans by obligation, but that tone doesn't fit the scenery at all. The good thing is that it's a 2D action game, so there's no need to actually read a single word; not even the ones that explain more or less where to go after, as the map is presented perfectly to help you find your orientation.

Akaoni Studio has managed to produce a title that is simple but closed in its proposal. In which only an easily ignorable defect in tone slightly weakens a game that has a good rhythm and makes you have a good time. All of it is correct, no more and no less, something that many more pretentious games fall short of.