Mudd Masher (iOS) Preview

By Josh Di Falco 23.02.2017

Review for Mudd Masher on iOS

iOS games have the hardest gig when it comes to finding a gameplay mechanic or style that can appeal to the mass casual audience. Even worse is the high amount of clutter that sits on the store's app, further slimming any chances of being found. Atooi is bringing their next game to the storefront, with this endless runner styled game titled Mudd Masher. With an extremely simple learning curve that requires two actions during the entire game, this is a great way to quickly pass the time on a commute while achieving those high scores.

From the opening intro screen, the only two actions that are ever used is the act of jumping from one tile to the next, and tapping a finger on a falling or stationary bad guy to "pop" them off the screen. That is all there is to the gameplay mechanics. After jumping off the tile on the title screen, the main avatar falls onto a randomly generated land that is made up of tiles. Each tile is covered in brown sludge or mud, as the protagonist embarks on his quest to "mash" the land.

The aim of the game is to jump onto every single tile, thus banishing the tile of the "mudd," until the entire stage layout is cleared. Unfortunately, "mudd monsters" fall from the sky and proceed to quickly counterattack by spreading their mud back onto the clean tiles. What follows is a tug-of-war between trying to clear the stage, while quickly eliminating these monsters before they affect the tiles. Early on, the monsters do not appear all that often and generally arrive in small groups or individually. Thus, the ease of banishing these monsters is enough to get casual players used to the idea of these setbacks, without fully wavering their faith in their ability to quickly contain the issue.

Screenshot for Mudd Masher on iOS

As one stage clears, the protagonist then jumps off the land onto the next randomly generated stage. Each subsequent stage gets larger, thus more tiles need to be cleared. The enemy drop rate also increases, while more enemies join the fray each drop. This balancing act between clearing the enemies while trying to keep up with the tile flipping soon becomes a fast and frantic battle of reflexes with eye coordination across the map. See, the protagonist can temporarily die if he lands on the same tile as an enemy, or if he falls off a tile that does not have an adjacent tile to it. Therefore, the enemies need to be tapped on with a finger before their occupied tile can be jumped on.

While all this is going on, a tile counter is situated on the top left of the screen, and is how the game tallies the scores. It counts every single tile that is flipped or cleaned of the mud, and trying to see how high of a score can be gotten will soon be the addiction of Mudd Masher. Online leaderboards and challenges are a matter of time, with the replayability relying solely on the ten-second game loop of jumping on mud tiles and tapping enemies. In addition, the stages contain a handful of coins that can be collected, although apart from continuing a "run" upon dying, it is still unknown whether these coins will have another use for upgrades or customisation options for the avatar in the full game.

Screenshot for Mudd Masher on iOS

Final Thoughts

Mudd Masher is a highly addictive yet simple game that just dives straight into the game and how it's played. Not requiring a large learning curve will be its greatest strength, and its constant jump-in gameplay keeps it easily accessible. This is an endless runner with procedurally generated stages, and the protagonist is constantly trying to mash the mud off the tiles, while having to compete with the mud monsters that are persistent on dirtying the clean tiles. Mudd Masher has been submitted to the AppStore, so expect a Cubed3 review when it releases very soon.

Developer

Atooi

Publisher

Atooi

Genre

Action

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  5/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date None   Australian release date Out now   

Comments

Ooh, is this from the break-off of Renegade Kid? The Jools half?

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

UNITE714: Weekly Prayers | Bible Verses

Yup, Atooi, his new studio.

Fantastic! This looks rather like Q-Bert, don't you think?

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

UNITE714: Weekly Prayers | Bible Verses

Ahh, so it does. Never played that one.

Ah yeah, you're not quite as old as me Smilie Smilie

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

UNITE714: Weekly Prayers | Bible Verses

Haha yeah I hadn't played Q-Bert either, so couldn't really compare Mudd Mashers to it. But definitely one I'm interested in. 

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