Developers NinjaBee are most famous for their Xbox Live Arcade Hit Cloning Clyde which released way back in 2006, a time when the XBLA was still a new experience to many and downloading games wasn’t as common. The side-scrolling platformer made a big impression and ended up being one of the highest rated XBLA games of the year. Since then, NinjaBee have released Dash of Destruction (remember that Doritos game which handed us all a pathetically easy 200 gamerpoints?) and more notably A Kingdom of Keflings, a game famous due to it being the first XBLA game to implement the use of your Avatar. NinjaBee have been quiet on the scene since 2008 but are now back with their latest title, Ancients of Ooga. Although not related in story wise, Ancients of Ooga is said to be Cloning Clyde’s spiritual successor; so can the game live up to Clyde’s high standards and provide another fun platforming experience for us Xbox 360 owners?

A tribe of odd looking creatures called the Ooganis were happy with life until a race of monster called the Boolis showed up. The Boolis offered the Oogani tribe some tempting slugs to eat, and even though the Oogani chiefs advised the tribe to stay well away, the temptation was too much and the Ooganis ate a bunch of the slugs. Little did they know that the slugs were infact intoxicating and would bring terrible things to the tribe. The Ooganis become fat, lazy, and worst of all locked their once loved chiefs up in cages and allowed the evil Boolis to burn and kill them.

A few of the Oogani tribe couldn’t take anymore and wanted their freedom back, and therefore summoned the Great Spirit of Ooga, played by you. Using the power of the Great Spirit, you must travel to the Oogani villages and convince all of the tribes to join a massive revolt against the Boolis and earn their freedom back, along with reviving the murdered Oogani chiefs and bringing order back to the land. The story has a good premise and could have worked well but unfortunately is presented to us rather poorly throughout the game. The majority of the story is told via text in speech bubbles which you must read due to the lack of voice acting, and there seems to be a large amount compared to other games. Some well produced cut-scenes would have been perfect to make the game more entertaining and flow more fluidly.

The gameplay itself mixes platforming elements with basic puzzles which you must solve to reach the next section. You will control a number of Oogas throughout the levels and must “possess” different Oogas to be able to progress through certain areas of the game, and this is easily done by scrolling through the available characters with the left and right bumper buttons and pressing A when you have the desired Ooga selected. Different Oogas have unique abilities such as being able to breathe fire balls or run through brambles without losing health, and therefore you must use the correct Ooga for each situation.

You are very unlikely going to spend a long time pondering which Ooga to use due to the simplicity of the game, and this also applies to many of the puzzles throughout the game which are extremely basic and a piece of cake to solve. If you do happen to get stuck, holding the left trigger will display a map which tells you your objectives and clearly shows both your current position in the level and where you must travel to. The map and simple puzzles make large portions of the game a breeze to play through and offers relaxing and stress-free gameplay; which can be a nice change from the frantic, fast-paced first person shooters I normally play. The game introduces a new mechanic for carrying objects around a level. In the land of Ooga, you can chew, swallow, or throw-up pretty much any other character or carryable object in the game. Apart from the entertainment factor, this mechanic must be used to solve certain puzzles and progress though the game.

Ancients of Ooga boasts a lengthy campaign which can take upto ten hours to complete, but unfortunately the gameplay becomes repetitive in no time at all. This could be due to the game making you carry out the same tasks over and over again. Pulling levers, possessing different Oogas and retrieving items to keep the tribes happy will be the main tasks given to you, and the game doesn’t differ much from this. When you eventually encounter some evil Boolis throughout levels, you’ll attempt to stay well clear of your enemies due to the games poorly implemented combat system. There is no depth or skill to the combat at all and you will often die a cheap death due to not being able to run away from the Boolis’ annoyingly long swipe and high motivation to take you down.

The land of Ooga does look decent and can be pleasant on the eye. While the game lacks some shiny textures that others display, the Oogas themselves are well detailed and the games animations will provide some laughs along the way. Allowing your character to stand there and perform random dances can often be more entertaining than the actual gameplay. The soundtrack has a tribal theme which suits the game well and thankfully won’t annoy you too much.

If you’re looking for a simple platform puzzle game with a lengthy campaign, Ancients of Ooga could be 800 Microsoft Points well spent. However, the repetitiveness and ease of gameplay might put some people off, so look elsewhere if you’re looking for a more challenging title. There are superior platform puzzle games available on the Xbox Live Arcade but if you’ve experienced all of these or are looking for a game with a bit of character, Ancients of Ooga is worth checking out.