The Secret of Space Octopuses

You, in the guise of a little boy, have been abducted by space octopuses, and you have to discover their secret if you want to escape and get back to Earth. So begins the journey that shall henceforth be known as The Secret of Space Octopuses.

Unfortunately, the secret isn't very interesting. There are some nice ideas trapped away in this mess of a platformer, and we're optimistic that the fledgling studio behind the game will learn from its mistakes and produce something really worthwhile in future, but you'll struggle to enjoy this jumble of ideas.

The boy that you have the uncertain privilege of piloting has managed to build a robot out of loose parts, and this giant metallic exoskeleton allows you to leap, smash, and dodge your way to victory over the aliens.

As well carrying out various platforming tasks, such as clinging to ledges and flipping switches, you can also suck in resources and create boxes from them.

There's a wide range of boxes to find that can help you solve puzzles. Sometimes you'll be stacking them to get over obstacles, and at other times you'll be sticking them to surfaces in order to weigh down hanging platforms.

There are multiple ways to go through each level, which is a nice touch. Different paths contain different puzzles to overcome and different enemies to beat.

Overall, however, the overwhelmingly amateurish look and feel to the game drown out any potential enjoyment. The Secret of Space Octopuses is not a game that will create many smiles.

The controls, for one, are pretty awful, feeling both loose and floaty at the same time.

Even the simplest of jumps from platform to platform is tricky to pull off, and you'll regularly overshoot and undershoot, never quite landing where you wanted. Fortunately, the game respawns you close to where you died, but this is scant consolation for terrible controls.

The game also relies far too heavily on gamepad-style inputs, with multiple buttons all over the screen. Flinging boxes with a flick is very troublesome at times.

Much of the game follows this clumsy outline. It creaks along at times, with lengthy loading screens. The story and dialogue are weak, and filled with bad grammar and spelling mistakes.

The barely contrasting visuals don't work very well on a small screen, either - I regularly couldn't see openings and enemies, as they blended into the background far too easily.

The Secret of Space Octopuses is the sort of work that a new studio with future potential puts out. We'll keep our eye on Midgar Studio, but this particular platformer isn't worth your time.