Ookoohko Oy, the indie studio behind the well-received iPhone game Get Outta My Galaxy, has released an upgraded and universal HD version that finally adds full iPad support, and adds a bunch of new additions.
An interactive map screen now allows you to select levels to replay, gems can be collected for unlockable bonus levels, a new enemy type was added, new puzzle elements were added, and generally all levels have received a lot of tweaking.
Because of a major overhaul in the graphics department, and the heavy use of OpenGL ES 2.0 shaders that older devices can’t run, Ookoohko Oy had to drop support for the original iPhone, iPhone 3G, and the first two generations of iPod Touch hardware. Since Apple doesn’t allow the dropping of support for previously supported hardware, what was originally going to be a major update is now a separate HD version of the game.
I played Get Outta My Galaxy HD for a while in the past week and it doesn’t disappoint, even though I had already played the previous version before. If you already own the regular version, the upgrades by themselves may not be worth an entire re-purchase unless you are a big fan of the game. If you haven’t picked it up before, however, the HD version is definitely the version to get — provided you can run it.
The graphics are quite a bit sharper and cleaner thanks to things like higher resolution textures and anti-aliasing, although you’d likely be hard pressed to see the difference if you would play the two versions months apart from each other. Either way, the result is a marked improvement over the already great-looking game.
In Get Outta My Galaxy you control the grumpy space monster Waka, who just wants to chill out in his space territory, eat rocks, and generally not be annoyed. When a sudden invasion of little creatures called “wikus” enter his home planet, there’s only one thing to do. They need to get off your spacelawn and the only way to do that is to slap the living hell out of them, using your four arms.
Waka can be controlled with either tilt controls or a virtual joystick, and tapping or dragging across the screen makes him slap in that direction. You walk around spherical moons and planets in a Super Mario Galaxy or Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time fashion, while levers, buttons, and other puzzle elements keep the levels diverse and interesting enough to play.
Between the four galaxies you need to cleanse of the wiku plague, there’s plenty of content here. Add to that the new bonus levels and the collectable hunting, and you get a good amount of hours to make it worth your buck. In fact, the game would probably make a good downloadable title for the PlayStation Vita. If you’ve been wanting to slap the hell out of little Pikmin-like creatures for cathartic reasons, you could do far, far worse than picking up Get Outta My Galaxy.
Alternatively, you could win one of five codes Ookoohko Oy was kind enough to provide us! To win a code, simply leave a text comment on this post where you answer this question:
“Who would you slap outta your galaxy and why?”
Is it your in-laws? Your little sister who keeps stealing your iPad? Justin Bieber? People who hold a party to celebrate tea? Surprise me. You have until 1 p.m. CDT tomorrow to come up with something, and I’ll PM the users of five best entries with a code shortly afterwards. Time’s up!
Published: Aug 4, 2011 03:15 pm