Okies, Mokies, and Crokies…Oh my!
The World of Dracamar is a colorful Mediterranean inspired landscape with a variety of charm filled areas and characters mixed in for fun. A story about community and the desire to rebuild and renew the world to free the world of evil. Upon entering the world of Dracamar, you are greeted by a colorful landscape and vibrant characters. Once you pick one of three characters and start moving around the world you are soon greeted by a magical creature known as an Okie. An adorable pig/rabbit looking animal that is friendly and seeks your attention. You are soon after called to arms by the locals to become the hero they need to defend the island from the Mokies, which are like a corrupted Okies, and other evil, yet semi-cuddly minions of the evil King Crad. When you manage to defeat an enemy, you must collect the Crokies that falls off of the formerly corrupted Mokies thus turning them back into Okies! Phew! Try to say that fast.
Dracamar is a 3D action-adventure platformer from Petoons Studios. The studio has only a few titles and focuses on family friendly IPs with colorful animations and vivid story telling. And when you look at the animations and art style of Dracamar you will see evidence of that the moment you boot the game. The game introduces you to mechanics at an easy pace so even the most new and casual gamer could catch on. The levels are varied and interesting enough to keep the attention of someone for a while. And linear enough to not have you running in circles trying to figure out what to do. And there are even a few hidden secrets in each level that might make the completionist come back to find that one missing item in a particular level.
MSRP: $19.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $19.99
While playing Dracamar I was constantly trying to figure out who would enjoy this game. While the art, animations, and story are well done, I couldn’t help but think that this could be enjoyed by a younger generation or a family with younger kids wanting to share an experience. The gameplay is solid but not overly complicated. The story is okay but not too convoluted. And the characters are cute enough to appeal to someone who likes cuddly woodland animals. Well, who doesn’t? As I made my way from level to level trying to unlock all its secrets, I found myself not just having fun with the game but enjoying what I was playing. And as you make your way across the island the variations in the levels are drastic enough, so the levels don’t seem to grow stale. Not to mention that each area has only three to four levels and a boss battle. You never feel like you have overstayed an area, and the boss battles are simple enough to figure out how to defeat them yet hard enough to give you a challenge. And yes, I even failed a few times before being able to defeat a few of the bosses. When it comes to the bosses, most of them are locals from the island who have been corrupted by the Crokie, splash in some humor and, VOIL’A! You have a boss battle.
As far as the characters go, you have a choice at the beginning of the game to pick one of three characters but get the opportunity to switch characters within the levels at checkpoints if you so desire. All the characters play similarly to each other with only slight variations to attacks or animations. When it comes to traversal throughout the game this can be a variety of means. Of course, you have a jump and a double jump. But as you move along the game introduces you to tons of other ways to get around, there are chutes to slide in, rails to grind on, kites to fly with, springy spots to get you to a higher position, and so many more.
All of these are shown as you get deeper into the game, and some of these require the help of the newly freed Okies. At one point I was prompted to hit the left trigger to turn a screw in the ground into a larger screw with the help of an Okie and the have to kick the screw in order to move a platform to reach a certain spot. There are places to wall jump and mushrooms and flowers to bounce of smash to get higher or into a tricky spot. It’s almost as if the developer said let put every type of traversal ever made into this game. And while it was fun to see the different ways to get around, I almost wonder if it wasn’t too much when in one level you used a mushroom to bounce higher and then turn a corner and have to bounce on a flower to get to a higher platform. It’s as if the developer struggled to find it own identity and just decided to add everything it could into this game.
When you look at the map there are a lot of areas marked with shapes that signify what the challenge is. There were areas that were the levels themselves. Areas where you farmed seeds to grow items that would aid you along the way. Areas that had mini-games to play and even shops so you could buy items for the game or even a new hat or outfit for you to put on your character.
While the game is swimming with charm, there are couple of things that could have used some attention. The controls felt tight if not a tad too tight at times, the camera angle sometimes would aid in you missing a jump to the next platform causing you to fall to your doom. You can adjust the camera and there is even a function to center the camera with a button press, but it would still occasionally turn in such a manner that you misjudged a jump. There were a few times when I wanted to move on to a new area and didn’t have enough of an item and had to repeat levels just to collect more of these items in order to open the path to the new area. When it comes to the sounds and music of the game, most of the characters are voice acted and the music is similar throughout the game but not to the point of being distracting. Most of these complaints are minor inconveniences and don’t detract too much from the game. Overall, I did enjoy the game even though it seemed to be geared towards a younger audience with the visuals and simplistic story and characters. As far as value goes, you get a lot to do for a budget title. The game retails on Xbox store for $24.99 and is a good price for a title such as this.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.