As a minion of the great idol, you are assigned with an important task: the idol it’s hungry and wants you to gather some golden eggs for his breakfast. In exchange, he promises you riches beyond imagination. Nothing bad, I must say. But how can a little duck overcome so many challenges and predators too accomplish this task? This idol will provide you with the power to manipulate gravity. And thus, your adventure begins!
Developed by the Finnish studio Woblyware Oy (the studio that brought us Devious Dungeon, League of Evil and a few other games we have already reviewed for you here at Life is Xbox) and published by Ratalaika, in this adventure you will face the dangers of more than 100 levels (and achieve your Gamerscore daily quota waaay before it) full of enemies, perils and menaces against the life of our feathery friend. Now grab your Xbox controller and let’s see what other surprises this DuckTales holds for us.
- Visuals: Gravity Duck presents some cute 8-bit pixel graphics in charming and colorful levels. Although I know not every player out there enjoy this visual style, those who do will be pleased to see such nice graphics.
- Simple gameplay: Gravity Duck is one of those games who is really simple to learn, but absolutely hard to master. All you do in this game is flip the gravity and, with it, escape enemies and traps. It looks simple, I know, but you will be quickly introduced to elements that spice things up in the game: devices that change your orientation in mid-air and enemies and traps that may pose a threat to you.
- Great level design! The timeless classics Super Mario World and Sonic the Hedgehog had one thing in common that defined a genre and put them above a terrific generation of games: incredible level design. And I dare to say that Gravity Duck has one remarkable level design too. The traps and enemies positioning in this platform-puzzle game is never impossible to beat, though they may require a few retries so you can reach the egg.
- Switch. Die. Repeat: There’s no need to hide it from you: you will die. A LOT. Countless times in more advanced levels. But you will always know that you are the one to be held responsible for your failures. Not the game. So that feeling of one more try will never fade.
- Easy 1000G: Keeping Ratalaika’s tradition, this is another game that you will get 1000G really, really fast. So, achievement hunters, do your Gamerscore a favor and get this game as fast as you can.
- Sound: It’s kind of disappointing, but Gravity Duck has only a few pieces of music for you to enjoy your adventure. They are very good but will hardly stick to you while you are playing, especially since the game keeps skipping between them every time you die. It’s a smart move, but due to its short repertory, it may have some backfire.
- Good length, but few reasons to reach its end: Here’s a problem most of those easy 1000G games have: if you let players unlock all the achievements before reaching the end of the game, some – if not most of them won’t take the time to complete the game. It’s a risky move since if you are aiming a specific group of gamers, making your game too long may keep this public away from your title. But if you plan on adding so much content and value beyond this 1000G wall, maybe not all these players will see it. That said, Gravity Duck has 140 levels across 4 different chapters for you to venture. Needless to say that the later ones are going to be a real challenge to complete!
- Animations… what animations? The duck, our hero in this adventure, has a model that is waaaay to simple (even simpler than most of your enemies), with almost no animation at all. Ok, we all know you are a duck and you are not going to shoot or kung fu your way out of each level, but the absence of animations and visual effects feels like something is missing in this game.
CONCLUSION
Score: 66%
Wooblyware clearly played in the safe zone with Gravity Duck. They implemented great ideas for the title, especially in its level design and gameplay, and also delivered it with some really cute pixel graphics. But it hardly goes beyond that. There’s no doubt it’s a fun little game that everyone can enjoy, especially if you like puzzle and platform games, but this one, in particular, is clearly aimed for completionists and achievement hunters.
Developer: Woblyware Oy Publisher: Ratalaika Games
Played on: Xbox One X Also available on: Switch, PS4, PSVita
Time to beat: Less than 4 hours… If you don’t get stuck often
Achievement difficulty for 1000 Gamerscore: Just keep playing and you will unlock your 1000G in no time.
Perfect for: Those who enjoy puzzle and platforms or just want a boost in their Gamerscore
Xbox Game Store link: Click here
With a history of gaming that goes from his old man’s Atari 2600 to his Xbox One, Rafael or RAF687, our Brazilian editor, has a love for games as old as he can remember. He has already spent countless hours in many consoles (Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega Saturn, PS1, PS2 and Xbox 360) and is always ready for more (as long as his wife is asleep). Raf has been writing for LifeisXbox since 2017, with a passion for games of almost all genres – though we know he has a special place in his heart for RPGs, racing games and anything that includes pixel art. Writing about games has always been a childhood dream to Raf, dream that he has fulfilled reviewing games for you here. You can drop him a message at Twitter, Facebook or Xbox Live at any time.