How is it that seemingly emotionless robots can always emanate such personality? Some say that Wall-E is Pixar’s most attention-grabbing movie thanks to the plight of the little droid, while Marvin from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is easily one of the most depressed characters in a film ever. The latest hero-bot to appear in the Android Marketplace, Ozzy also remains expressionless throughout play – yet we can’t help but feel sorry each time the little guy bites the dust. There are perhaps one too many buggy areas that pop up now and again, but Ozzy’s Odyssey is nevertheless an enjoyable experience.
How is it that seemingly emotionless robots can always emanate such personality? Some say that Wall-E is Pixar’s most attention-grabbing movie thanks to the plight of the little droid, while Marvin from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is easily one of the most depressed characters in a film ever. The latest hero-bot to appear in the Android Marketplace, Ozzy also remains expressionless throughout play – yet we can’t help but feel sorry each time the little guy bites the dust. There are perhaps one too many buggy areas that pop up now and again, but Ozzy’s Odyssey is nevertheless an enjoyable experience.
On each level, Ozzy must reach the exit without coming a cropper on the various obstacles and enemies. He’s a very physical robot, and as such as pushes boxes, flips switches and scale platforms to reach the goal.
Puzzles are nicely varied and feel fun to solve. Quite quickly the going gets a little more tough, and you’ll really need to use your noggin to pass through to the next level. Many of the puzzles involve the use of physics, such as pushing a barrel down a slope, and so some solutions can really cause the ‘ahh!’ affect as you realise what you’re meant to be doing.
Along the way there are nasty robots who will hunt you down, crushers that fall from the ceiling to silence Ozzy’s bleeping and blooping, and doors that need to be unlocked with keys. This involves using Ozzy’s special tractor beam ability – he can suck in objects such as keys and boxes, then spit them out where is necessary.
It’s a great little feature and allows the puzzles to expand a little more and try situations that would have otherwise been impossible. There are batteries scattered around too which, while not essential, give a sense of exploration as you try to collect every single one.
The game is nicely presented, with bright backdrops and a cute little hero who makes plenty of R2-D2 style noises. You’ll quickly feel for the little robot and his quest.
Unfortunately, Ozzy’s Odyssey hasn’t been developed all too well. There are plenty of bugs throughout, with some that are even game-breakers. We found ourselves getting stuck in scenery multiple times, and usually if you push up against a wall, you’ll be able to hover in the air for no reason!
Sometimes you can simply restart the level to fix it, but a few times we had to completely quit out of the game and restart to fix problems. At one point a message kept popping up that we’d failed the mission, even when we tried restarting it!
There are also issues elsewhere with progression. You can only ever attempt the next level up, and if you get stuck then there’s not a lot you can do except try and try again. Tackle a previous level, however, and the game will forget that you’ve completed levels further down and lock you out of them! You’ll then need to complete them all over again.
With a little extra care on the programming side of things, Ozzy’s Odyssey could have been an essential Android game to own. As it is, it’s still a very fun game. We hope that developer Carbon Crystal Games makes a sequel or release an update, while fixing all the bugs next time around!
