Game Reviews

Angel in Danger

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Angel in Danger
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| Angel in Danger

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single villain in possession of a good fortune must be in want a wife.

Seriously, why else would baddies keep carting off all the land's available femmes the minute they hit puberty? Because they're lonely, complex antiheroes in need of love of course, and voiceless damsels in distress fulfil that aching need.

Or, you know, it could just be the inability of certain developers to break out of medieval stereotype.

It's fist-chewingly frustrating that with a wealth of plot devices at their fingertips some modern developers still insist on clinging ferociously to this ancient trope - so don't be surprised if Angel in Danger's lacklustre plot makes your knuckles bleed and teeth ache.

Here we go again

The story is outlined at the start. Angelo lives in the wonderful world of "Bright Kingdom" where rainbows erupt from fluffy white clouds and angels waft around wearing harps and halos.

One day the cloven hoofed Lord Debol pokes his devil-red face inside the Kingdom where he uses his "evil powers" to kidnap the Angel Princess, and now Angelo is the only one who can save her.

That's as much detail as you get. Who is Lord Debol? Why is Angelo, a child wielding nothing but a teensy-tiny toga, the only person who can take him down? What does the Angel Princess have to say about all this? Who knows. Shut up and collect some halos.

As 3D platformers go, the game mechanics are alright. Angel in Danger has twenty-four levels, broken down into four worlds with six levels in each. If you've played Super Mario 3D Land on the Nintendo 3DS it'll be pretty clear where the game is siphoning off its inspiration.

At its best, Angel in Danger can provide some pretty enjoyable platforming experiences. Most notably, it's not afraid to be difficult.

There's no safe "double jump" feature to correct you if you go off course, for example, and the slimness of the game's ledges would give the comfortably chunky platforms of Super Mario 3D Land a dieting complex.

Wing it

If the game's aggressive enemies kill Angelo, you are stripped of all collectibles and transported straight to the beginning of the level. If that's not bad enough, you also lose all the collectible halos you've spent ages stockpiling for more lives in the process.

It certainly makes for some stomach clenching moments if you wobble too close to a platform edge.

Plus, Angel in Danger looks relatively smart. Levels are varied and colourful and run with a slickness Professor Snape's greasy locks can only aspire to.

But then the game crashes in on itself. Dodgy camera angles crank up the difficulty to unfair proportions, meaning you can't tell whether you're leaping in the direction of a platform or a gaping abyss. Likewise the levels may look nice, but the characters and enemies themselves are lifeless.

Then there's the music. Tracks are short and repetitive, warbling in a constant loop of unrelenting clappy hand sounds and twangy guitar things.

Throw in some dodgy controls and glitchy enemy AI, and Angel in Danger is in danger of upping your anger levels to "Hulk smash" proportions.

There really aren't enough 3D platformers in the App Store, so the space is crying out for some original ideas. Angel in Danger could have scratched an overwhelming itch, but instead it exacerbates it, like a celestial mosquito. You wouldn't be blamed for squashing it.

Angel in Danger

With not one idea to call its own, the only thing this Angel is in danger of doing is breaching a string of copyright laws
Score
Alysia Judge
Alysia Judge
After spending months persuading her parents that it's a valuable career path, Alysia is still not bored with writing about games. That's a good thing really, since skills like spaceship navigation and zombie slaying are pretty much non-transferable.