Firby
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| Firby

As apparitions go, Caspar may have the market pretty much cornered when it comes to being the 'friendly ghost', befriending children and generally forgetting what he's really meant to be doing – like scaring people.

But new spirit on the block, Firby, is hoping his cutesy outlook on the afterlife, and his bright pink-coloured ectoplasm exterior, will make him a hit, too.

So we welcome colourful platformer, Firby, from OrangePixel, which features such a ghost, who in no way reminds us of another rotund, pink game character with a similar name from fairly well-known games publisher and hardware manufacturer whose name starts with 'N' and ends in 'do'. Nor indeed that well-known talking toy whose name starts with 'F' and ends with 'by'. [Lawyer's note - we have no idea what this man is talking about – Ndo and Fby?]

Pitched as a cute platformer, in Firby you have to take control of the little fella so he can help Shaba, a good witch, find the keys to rescue her pet monsters who are locked in cages. These are spread across 48 levels.

First, what will impress you is the gaming area takes up every last pixel of your mobile's screen. Each level follows the simple pattern of forcing you to negotiate the jumps, platforms and enemies to collect a key that opens the closed portcullis which serves as your exit and portal to the next stage.

Along the way, you boost your score with various items to collect, such as fruit, diamonds and flowers. Other elements include stages that have bubbles floating upwards from vents in the ground at the bottom of the screen and these can be used to get to otherwise inaccessible areas of the level and grab the all-important key.

As you progress, enemies get quicker and even become free-roaming rather than just patrolling their designated areas in a backwards, forwards or up and down manner. It can make things tricky, especially when there's little room for you to avoid them.

Things are made a tad easier by potions that can be found lying around some levels. The grey potion, for instance, gives Firby a shield that allows him to sustain at least one hit from an enemy instead of dying instantly. The red potion is the most fun, though, granting you the ability to fly around the level by installing helicopter blades on top of Firby's head. Coptertastic.

When jumping around from platform to platform, however, we discovered problems with the controls, which just aren't as refined as they could be. See, Firby moves a little too quickly when you jump upwards, and you'll frequently find yourself turning too quickly and clipping the sides of the platform. Also, when you have to drop down a few levels, avoiding the monsters as you go, success comes more from luck than skill because of the sharpness of Firby's movements and the speed at which he falls.

As for the presentation side of the equation, the best that can be said of the graphics is they're clear and functional. Firby is given some atmosphere with small touches of animation, but the enemy sprites are treated like the predictable drones that they are and there's no life to them. The audio is also poor; you'll only get a few introductory notes when you start a level or when Firby loses a life. We expect more nowadays.

If platform jumping really is your thing, Firby may keep you entertained for a period, but the simple fact is it is a derivative title lacking in ideas and focused execution.

Firby

Average production values, a basic game mechanic and lack of charm leave Firby fatally flawed
Score
Chris Maddox
Chris Maddox
Liverpool fan, Chris, loves to watch the mighty Redmen play. In between matches however, he's an avid mobile games reviewer for Pocket Gamer. Chris has assured us that he only thinks about Liverpool FC a mere 80 per cent of the day.