FreakyForms Deluxe: Your Creations, Alive Review

The boxart for FreakyForms Deluxe depicts a scene that looks for all the world like an imaginative child has gone wild with the Fuzzy Felt. It’s absolutely ideal for a game that often feels like a digital recreation of the popular fabric toy; this is a title that allows you to create all sorts of weird and wonderful 2D creatures and play with them in simple, brightly-coloured worlds.

As you might expect from the title, this is an expanded version of the eShop favourite from developer Asobism Co., which boasts alumni from Chibi-Robo developer Skip among its staff. The original is an unlikely hit in some ways: a defiantly 2D game on a 3D console featuring unusual controls and rudimentary mechanics doesn’t seem like an obvious seller, but it managed to win players over with its wonderfully intuitive yet flexible creative toolkit which allows you to build monsters – or Formees, as the game calls them – from a number of different parts. These can be resized and rotated and attached just about anywhere, and when you’ve given your creation a catchphrase and a voice, you can send them out into the world – or, indeed, those of other players via StreetPass or unique QR codes.

As a game, there’s nothing much to FreakyForms: for the most part it’s little more than a collection of fetch quests and races, the rewards for which are usually additional body parts, or coins to spend on further assets. The world expands the more Formees you build, but while the backgrounds change, the simplistic objectives remain broadly similar. The Deluxe edition adds dungeons to the mix. Venture underground and you’ll face off against other Formees, some provided by the developer, others of your own creation. You’re given a typing based on your creature’s make-up, which forms part of an archetypal rock-paper-scissors setup: for example, Defensive types prove weak against Aggressive opponents but can breeze past Speedy monsters.
Sadly, encounters are simply a matter of sitting back and hoping for the best. There’s a certain slapstick appeal in seeing these outlandish characters take clumsy swings at each other with their elastic limbs, and the text descriptions are witty, but you can easily fall victim to the whims of the game. It’s no good having a strong Formee if they’re going to spend three turns jiggling on the spot to raise their offensive stats while having their health bar reduced to zero by an opponent who attacks every turns. Making stronger Formees with more parts can tilt the balance, however, though the trade-off for a multi-limbed creation is decreased manoeuvrability. As before, it’s exclusively stylus-controlled, which may annoy some, but there’s a tactile satisfaction to flinging your Formees around that sits well with their amusingly awkward movements.

The only other notable addition is a single-cart local multiplayer mode for up to four players. This allows the host to set themed creative sessions, with the resulting Formees revealed onstage, and shared between all involved. It seems a fairly throwaway diversion, but if you’re a parent with a creatively-minded child – or a big kid with a group of equally enthusiastic friends – it’s great fun. Whether that’s enough to make this a ‘Deluxe’ edition is highly debatable, though Nintendo has sensibly decided to release the game at a budget price.

Source : feeds.ign.com