Otto Matic: Alien Invasion!

You know, I’m really looking forward to the alien invasion of Earth. I don’t even mind how it turns out.

It could be the exciting, ultra-violent stampeding of humans through war torn cities; or a conspiracy that quietly crescendos overnight with humanity forever interred by their new extraterrestrial overlords; or it could be end up as a camp slapstick action farce.

Otto Matic takes this latter view. It sees a fleet of aliens heading toward Earth, heralding an invasion of proportions so epic and campy that only Tim Burton could have predicted it. Indeed, it’s not just Earth that’s in danger: all inhabited planets of our small quadrant are apparently nothing more than harvesting grounds for anal probe-wielding flying saucer jockeys - no one’s safe.

Unless, of course, Otto Matic has any say in the matter. You take on the role of one of the galaxy’s finest robotic protectors: the Otto Matic machine, rescuing humans from, in the first instance, a redneck farming town on Earth.

You land at exactly the same time as the body snatchers are scouring the landscape and beaming the Jim Bobs and Mary Jos of the world into their flying saucers.

You control Otto with an on-screen D-pad on the left and four action buttons on the right. Rescuing humans is simply a case of touching them, which automatically transports them to the safety of Otto’s ship. There are plenty of aliens roaming the landscape, so collecting power ups and weapons is vital.

Where the game really shines is the verdant environments. The level designs are worthy of an early PlayStation game. These are colourful, sprawling, and varied worlds: that they’ve been packed inside an iPhone is no small feat.

At times you’ll be racing down zip lines, spinning about in space age dodgems and even taking to the controls of the flying saucer yourself, though the bulk of the gameplay puts Otto on foot.

But there’s a snag (as always). The controls and camera in Otto Matic are almost enough to ruin this otherwise superb lighthearted adventure. Not that it’s uncontrollable by any means, but the D-pad is aggravatingly random.

For one thing, Otto seems unable to easily change directions. Instead, he runs in a small, sweeping arc. Should you run past the human you’re trying desperately to save, pressing the backwards button has you running a small circle around him instead of changing direction and picking him up.

There’s also a very noticeable pause - a good second or more - for the camera to catch up with Otto’s point of view. Turn to face a different direction and you have to come to a full halt before the camera responds.

Because you’re running around at full pelt for the majority of the game, you spend more time looking Otto straight in the face and running him into lakes and alien blobs than anything else.

An experienced pocket gamer will, with determination, be able to train himself to overcome this shortcoming, but only at the cost of severe frustration.

If Pangea can get these slack controls tightened up, it’s got a real hit on its hands. Right now, Otto Matic: Alien Invasion! is wearing some rather unbecoming concrete boots - and the tide is coming in.