Game of the Week: Coconut Dodge | Video Games, Reviews ...

A release from the distinctly low-budget end of the great gaming spectrum this week. Futurlab?s relentless success-munching behemoth of a PSN Mini (insofar as such hyperbole applies to a Mini) is a simple setup indeed. Our charming crustacean chum (whose name eludes me so I shall dub him Clive the crab) is feeling covetous for coinage. Fortunately for him, he has found a tiny desert island where the trees appear to shed gold, and even humongous diamonds on occasion.

Just to prevent this idyllic locale from being overrun by similarly mercenary holidaymakers, littering the place with McDonalds wrappers and cigarette butts and the like (at least that?s appeared to be par for the course at every holiday destination I?ve ever visited), gargantuan coconut missiles also fall from the sky at an alarming rate. As such, your aim is to run left and run across the screen, acquiring riches that Clive the crab couldn?t possibly have any remotely fathomable use for. You?ll be beset by coconuts every step of the way of course, so it?s a game of deft reflex-action. Gold equals points, while a hairy nut to the face (I could surely have phrased that better) results in a swift death and loss of one of your three precious lives. For the three or so people in the world likely to appreciate the reference, it?s an identical concept to the Bug Drop minigame in The Lion King for the Genesis.

It?s the seemingly tenuous details that add to the charm of this odd little confection. Clive the crab is a delightful little guy himself. Don?t deny his adorable nature, you fool nobody. I particularly enjoyed the Viking Helmet item, a rare and fleeting embellishment for our hero. This renders him invulnerable to the ?nuts, which would otherwise leave him a squishy heap of broken viscera on the sand (Well, not in a charming little paracosm-esque game like this, but you see my point. Whatever it may have been). Beach balls will flit across the screen on occasion, and if you succeed in keeping them aloft for the displayed number of ?bounces? you?ll receive a nice point bonus. There?s another small mechanic that enables Clive to dig into the sand to avoid certain death. The caveat here is that there?s no telling where he?ll appear
afterwards, which lends a subtle tactical edge to the sun-kissed shenanigans.

Play is divided into levels, but there?s nary a pause in the relentless object-plummeting carnage. A brief message will appear on screen to inform you you?ve reached the next plateau, but there?s no actual movement/change in scenery or the like. They are differentiated a little in the form of mazes that appear at certain points. These are great masses of high-velocity coconuts, with only the merest of gaps for you to traverse. Each one you survive will be open to play in the game?s other mode, maze master. Here, they become very brief challenges, where you must acquire a stricter-than-very-strict-indeed score from the sparsely-scattered coinage available.

Coconut Dodge is rather special. On the surface, it?s a simple ?casual? game with a charming tropical aesthetic (And a adoreable protagonist, as I think I?ve made plain.) It becomes challenging indeed even for the most hardened gamer, and the will to beat the ever-infernal high score is a powerful compulsion. Maze master will prove nefarious enough for anyone, while non-gamers will also enjoy the merry cavorting of Clive the Crab. Truly something for everyone.

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