Previews

#PGCHelsinki: Super Mario Maker meets Trials Frontier in What on Earth! heading to iOS soon

Creative

#PGCHelsinki: Super Mario Maker meets Trials Frontier in What on Earth! heading to iOS soon
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iOS
| What on Earth!
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What on Earth! blends the creativity of Super Mario Maker with the addictive physics-based racing of Trials Frontier to create a pretty compelling social mobile game.

You play as a member of an alien race which stumbles upon the human space probe Voyager, which crash-landed on their home planet after being sent into space by NASA.

The aliens then study TV transmissions captured via the Voyager's satellite and decide to emulate some of humanity's quirky habits.

And these habits pretty much revolve around driving recklessly and performing dangerous stunts in a variety of different vehicles.

Feeling creative

All of the levels in What on Earth! are user-generated and from the get-go you're being trained on how to be creative.

Tutorial levels introduce new creative elements you can use and you unlock them once the level is complete.

For example, one level teaches you how to use explosive barrels by challenging you to use them to clear a path to the end of the level.

New tools like that are constantly drip-fed. It's a nice feature that prevents all of the creative options from being overwhelming and creates a satisfying sense of progression.

You can also link the game to Facebook and keep track of your friend's progress, as well as share your tracks with them.

Brush up your skills

Creating a level is as simple as selecting a terrain and swiping to paint a path. You'll then dot a variety of different hazards and boosts around to give the players more to think about.

The system is both intuitive and satisfying, and its simplicity will likely appeal to players that haven't used a creative tool in a game before. That in itself is a stand-out feature.

You can rate and comment on content created by the community which will help sort the wheat from the chaff.

Unlocked potential

With an enormous variety of vehicles and gadgets to unlock, What on Earth! is shaping up to be chock full of content.

The creation tools are satisfying and intuitive to use. Combine this with the drip-feed unlock process and it's unlikely to overwhelm players who are new to creating in games.

The 3D visuals are excellent and reminiscent of a TV show produced by Cartoon Network and the physics-based racing felt very similar to a Trials game.

What on Earth! has a ton of potential but this will only be realised if an active community can be built around it. Time will tell.

Chris James
Chris James
A footy game fanatic and experienced editor of numerous computing and game titles, lively Chris is up for anything - including running Steel Media! (Madman!)