Xbox Indie Review: Kong360: Gorilla Warfare

Enough of those barrel-throwing games; it’s time to grow up, and you’ll need lots of guns to do that. We all know that mature gamers appreciate gun violence, so it’s appropriate the gorillas went into deathmatch mode for Kong360: Gorilla Warfare. This is a top-down multiplayer shooter that will take you back to the days of Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 Arena. There’s a whole lot of shooting, some flap capping and nothing much else. But it’s that simplicity that makes a game so appealing in an age of increasingly complex shooters, where you have those damned vehicles, experience points and customizable weapons. Here, it’s all shoot and fun, and nothing more.

But first you’ll need to get used to the controls. They’re a little tricky, especially if you don’t change the default “chasecam” mode. With chasecam, the camera looks down in an isometric view with your avatar on the bottom-center of the screen, and it strictly follows your movement as you look around. Your gorilla aims with a straight line pointing out from his hairy body, and there’s a tiny circle that slides along the line to determine where you’re going to shoot. Because the levels all have multiple stories, this allows you to shoot at different altitudes. It’s a good way to solve the dilemma of having a shooter with a top-down perspective, but it comes with a few minor issues. Sometimes when you’re trying to shoot a gorilla on an elevated area, your bullets will fly right above his head, and the same can happen vice versa.

Because there’s no real way of aiming up and down, you’re at the mercy of the sliding circle. Another issue associated with chasecam mode is that your character is located in the bottom- center of the screen, and because of this you miss out on a lot of the action behind. There have been times when a gorilla was shooting at me but was just outside of my field of view. If I tried to turn around to shoot him, I suddenly lost my view of everything I was just looking at. This wouldn’t be a problem if it was a first-person shooter (because that’s the nature of the perspective), but the controls of this game favor an improved field of view. That’s why I suggest switching to the “classic” view mode.

The classic mode feels a lot more like a twin-stick shooter (á la Smash TV). You still have the circle-sliding aim technique, but your movement is a lot freer (and you won’t deal with as many backstabbing gorillas). Even though I prefer this way of playing, it still has a bit of a learning curve. But learning the subtleties of movement will give players a lot more grace on the playing field, and the improved field of view will increase your awareness (and come to think of it, this mode’s improved FOV might give an unfair advantage to those playing online).

Once you master the controls, it’s time to get to know the maps, modes and weapons. This is a mutliplayer shooter, so as such, it comes with Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag modes. Before you start your game, you get to choose the map, the game mode, the time limit, the frag limit, cap limit, how many bots, how difficult they are, and how many human players. There are also two themes for every level: jungle or desert. For a small game like this, it’s nice for it to come with over 20 levels.

In every level, you’ll find a bevy of projectile weapons (machine gun, rocket launcher, shock rifle, shotgun), grenades (frag, flash), and power-ups (health, armor). Like any other shooter, every weapon has its pros and cons: machine gun, lots of ammo and long range, but low damage rate; rocket launcher, large blast radius, but clunky aiming; and so forth. My favorite weapons are the rocket launcher and the shock rifle; the others pale in comparison and will often be held by the losing end of a duel. It’s too bad the game didn’t have a greater diversity of weapons, because the matches feel a little unbalanced at times.

Besides the standard weapons, you also have a katana blade in case things get a little too close for comfort. If you play with the bots, you’ll notice this is their favorite weapon, and you’ll soon hate them every time your gorilla body kisses the ground. I learned that after wall-jumping (oops, forgot to mention that part) you can supposedly swipe the sword to get some extra air and reach higher places. I tried doing this multiple times and failed on all accounts. The button and thumbstick maneuver used for this move is very tactless and often leaves you vulnerable after lifting your finger off the trigger for a second. I wouldn’t be so disappointed about this poor design decision if it wasn’t for the bots who kept on flaunting their bodies to the high heavens with their swords.

Going on with the bots—they’re actually good; even the medium difficulty provides a challenge. But as the developers say, the real fun is with other human players. I only got to play a small session with my fiance, but I could sense the potential hilarity in having 4+ goons walking around the jungle or desert-themed maps. Sadly though, the appeal doesn’t go further than that. The game is fun, but not fun enough. In a world where stimuli are in constant competition for our attention, it’s hard to make a solid recommendation for this title. If you enjoy deathmatch-type games with an unusual perspective, Kong 360 might be for you. But for those looking for that shiny gem on the Xbox Live Indie Games platform, it’s time to look for another animal.

Visit the Xbox Live Marketplace to add a free demo of Kong360: Gorilla Warfare to your download queue.

Kong 360 was provided for review by the developers. It is available for 240 MS points ($3)