Scarygirl has got to feature one of the most unique main characters from in recent memory. Not only do you play as a small zombie-like girl but she has an octopus as her father and a kung-fu rabbit as her mentor. This odd pairing reminds me of Pearl the Whale from Spongebob Squarepants having Krusty the Krab as her father. As odd as this may sound, the gameplay is thankfully very fun and is one of the more unique looking side-scrolling games out there.
There are many games of this genre now available to download, so does Scarygirl offer an experience that no other game offers? Find this out and more as we take a look at what’s HOT and what’s NOT in our review of Scarygirl.
Hot
Unorthodox Story
As I already mentioned on the first paragraph, the odd pairing of a little zombie girl and an octopus by the name of Blister adopting her is something I’ve never seen before. At the start of the game, an introduction video shows how these two actually met in the first place. Scarygirl is sadly an abandoned orphan. Blister the Octopus finds her and decides to adopt her as his own. He not only names her “Scarygirl” but gives her some new clothes and even builds her a new home. Obviously, their bond starts to grow and they soon talk about the mysteries of the universe.
Scarygirl’s life is peaceful until she keeps getting haunted by a recurring dream she’s currently having. She wants to know what her dream is all about and why she keeps seeing recurring images of a bearded man. After many nights of this, a guru-like rabbit appears under her home and says that Scarygirl needs to go out on a journey to find out what this all means.
Design
At first I thought the design of the game was heavily inspired from the LittleBigPlanet games as the levels look similar and Scary Girl reminds me of a sackgirl. When I researched more about the game, I then realized that LittleBigPlanet may have taken some design inspirations from Scary Girl since she was created by an Australian artist by the name of Nathan Jurecivius back in 2001. Scary Girl became a franchise of its own spawning figurines and even a web comic before it was translated into a video game by TikGames.
The game’s design is excellent and the character design is something Hollywood director Tim Burton would be proud of. There are many weird and wonderful creatures that Scarygirl will encounter throughout the game and she visits many varied locations during her journey. One of my favorite levels in the entire game is where she visits an icy cave full of yetis! The yetis look more like sheep than anything else but it was humorous to see them for the first time to say the least.
Gameplay
The gameplay in Scarygirl is not as repetitive like in other side-scrolling games. You’re not always surrounded by a bunch of enemies all the time much like you are in a game such as Zack Zero. Missions are more varied and exciting than in other games from the very same genre. One level reminded me a lot of Uncharted 3 because Scarygirl was stuck inside a dark cave full of venomous spiders. The only way you could escape from them is by lighting up the cave. Not to mention the spiders themselves look very frightening especially when you see a whole swarm of them clogging up the entire screen.
The other unique thing about Scarygirl is that she has a hook. This hook can be used for many things such as gliding in the air, bashing enemies, grabbing objects and even grabbing stunned enemies and throwing them. She also has a shield that can block enemy projectiles. She can even deflect these projectiles back at the enemy target. This is a neat feature considering many other side-scrolling games lack any sort of block button…
Not
Multiplayer
As innovative and creative Scarygirl is in terms of its gameplay and design, the main area it’s lacking is the mediocre co-op mode. Although it’s very cool for the second player to be the kung-fu rabbit, the game still focuses heavily on one player only. If the second player is to move ahead, the camera will not follow them as it will only show one player instead. Not only that, but if one player dies, it’s game over. The game ends even though the second player still has full health and could continue on with the mission!
The other thing about the co-op multiplayer that I dislike is that players cannot swap to be the rabbit instead. Scarygirl has some cool moves but the rabbit is even better. He has kung-fu like punches and kicks and can even jump higher than Scarygirl. Another gripe about the game is that the co-op multiplayer is offline only. You cannot play the game with a friend on Xbox LIVE or anything like that. The only online aspect this game includes is the addition of leaderboards where you can compare high scores from the 7 levels that are included in the game.
Verdict
I applaud the unique design Scarygirl has. It’s not a clichéd game with a story about revenge or world domination. Furthermore, Scarygirl and all the other characters in this game is something you don’t see every day. The only thing that comes close to this are all the odd sea creatures you see in an episode of Spongebob Squarepants. Scarygirl is a great single player experience and any open minded gamer will enjoy the charm it brings to the table. Just avoid the pointless multiplayer portion of the game…