At a glance...

Previewer	Platform	Publisher	Developer	Players	Release Date	Screenshots
Richard Pilot	Xbox 360	Microsoft Games Studios	Southend Interactive	1-2 (Share screen)	TBA 2010	Here

ilomilo preview

At the Microsoft Gamescom booth, a row of consoles lined the wall, each one showing off a future release for the Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA). Amongst some of the more well-known titles, such as Sonic 4 or Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, were a number of hidden gems. Each of these were a break from the norm, attempting to do something new or applying something different to an old concept. Sadly, the crowd seemed more interested in trying those more higher profile titles than trying something completely new. It was here that we came upon ilomilo, a cute little platformer whose initial idle screens had enough charm to tempt us over to play. We weren’t disappointed.

So, what is ilomilo? The best game I can compare it to is the original PlayStation game Kula World, but it feels a little cheap to make such a comparison. Ilomilo is a lot more than that but at its core, it’s a cute puzzle-platformer.

Two characters stand upon a large configuration of blocks. Viewed from a third-person perspective, you have to direct the characters so that they end up on the same block, standing on the same face. Typically there are a few paths you can take, although in order to complete the level you will have to go down them all in a specific order. A miniature ramp allows you to traverse on to another side of the same block; in this way you will be traversing in all three dimensions in the truest sense of the expression.

More often than not you will have a number of these different tools at your disposal. A winch and button will pull and push a specific block between two locations, while other blocks can be picked up by characters and be placed in different locations in the level so that you can open up new paths. A wandering buffalo-type creature can be blocked in, serving as a bridge for your to walk over. Each of these gadgets feel varied and in the brief nine level segment we played, almost every level had its own unique gameplay mechanic which we had to utilise in order to proceed.

In addition to trying to accomplish your primary goal, there are a number of pickups which are needed in order to get 100% for that level. Key to your success is how you move the two characters. At a press of a button, control will switch with to the second character. This leads to interesting situations where your characters can’t reach one another but are close enough to pass items to each other such as blocks which are needed to solve the level.

Most of the game is built around this switching mechanic, so you’d be surprised if this game didn’t feature some sort of co-operative gameplay. Ilomilo doesn’t disappoint in this regard as it does indeed feature a two-player mode. Much like the single player experience, co-op is still focused on playing one of characters at a time. When not in control, the other player will control a cursor in the shape of their character which they can use to point out specific items in view and direct the active player. We were unable to tell whether you’ll be playing the same levels as the single-player but it was an interesting experience. I’m torn as to whether the ‘one at a time’ approach for the co-op mode was appropriate. On the one hand, I would like to have something more active to do when my co-op partner was in control but the counter-argument is that it gives you time to step back and think about the puzzle and what you need to do. During our session, we certainly used this time to our advantage and we had lengthy discussions over how we would solve the current puzzle, although this is an experience that needs to be played in the same room and may not carry as well when played over Xbox Live.

As we mentioned before, this game has an incredibly cute aesthetic. The characters and even the world itself are rendered in what appears to be fabric-type textures, similar to Sackboy in LittleBigPlanet. These textures are crisp and the entire game looks great in HD, something which is increasingly common in the XBLA landscape and is certainly not a bad thing. Character design feels right at home in this environment with most of the creatures you encountered sporting cuboid style shapes, like the aforementioned buffalo which is designed to look like a block. Overall this art style feels refreshing in a world of hyper-realism and it certainly helped to make the game come across as different and new..

The thing that struck us the most from the stand was that no-one was playing this game, which is an incredible shame. Once you pick up the controller you’ll be hooked and are sure to fall in love. No pricing has been announced, but we’re definitely be looking forward to playing more when it arrives on the XBLA later this year.

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Smileys taken from Crack's Smilies.