What I'm Playing... Mutant Mudds

Hey there.  You know, I love playing on the Nintendo 3DS.  It's an extremely convenient way to get my gaming on when I'm on the go or when I don't have too much time on my hands.  But you know what the absolute best part about it?  Some of the games made for the 3DS are short, challenging, and fun.  And that is where Mutant Mudds falls in.  Our good friends at Nintendo were kind enough to provide a copy of the game to me to check out.  Like with Mighty Switch Force, Mutant Mudds is simple to pick up and play but offers a unique challenge as well as a moderately high replay value.  So let's get to it!  Let's take a look at the game, Mutant Mudds.

Mutant Mudds is brilliant as it is simple.  The story is straight forward enough, your character, Max, uses his trusty water cannon to wash away the filthy mutant mudds that have plagued his homeland.  As you collect "coins", you open up new levels and tougher challenges.  Now, the game is a simple platform type game.  As Max, you jump and you can hover briefly using a sort of "double jump" to float to a ledge or avoid enemies and you shoot enemies down.  Even though the game looks 2D, it is set in a 3D environment.  Max can jump into the background and foreground in select spots to reach new areas of the stage.  This is a fantastic element and does not feel gimmicky at all.  The Nintendo 3DS 3D capabilities really shine when Max is in the background or foreground.  There are also 100 of these gem like coins scattered in each stage.  The premise of each stage is get through it, collect the coins, and reach the end of the stage.  You can also exchange your coins for some pretty neat power ups when you visit your grandma.  Yeah, grandma seems like she knows what's up in this game.  lol  Oh and before I forget, you can have 3 save files!  It may not seem like much, but some of the downloadable games for the 3DS only offer a single game file so I was quite pleased so see that I could share the game with family members and they can have their own save file.  That's a HUGE plus for me!

See the background?  Yeah, you need to find a way there and collect more stuffs!

Simple enough, right?  Wrong!  Though the idea may be simple, the stages are very well thought out and enemies and ledges are strategically placed so that there is a challenge to the simplistic jump and shoot game.  You have an infinite number of lives to get through the stage, but be warned, when you die, you will start from the beginning of each stage.  It can be daunting task to get through a difficult part of the stage only to fall into a pit of spikes and have to start over.  I went through this many times, having collected 98 of the coins and seeing the exit only to mistime my jump and die.  The game can be frustrating, but it's fair.  You never feel cheated!  This isn't one of those games where you need pure luck to get through a particularly tough part of the stage.  By taking your time and finding the perfect opportunity to jump or shoot will get you ahead.  For those that love to be challenged, Mutant Mudds will be hard to put down.

As for the replay factor, I love that there are secret doors or passages in the stages.  The secrets are only accessible by using certain power ups or by exploring areas you didn't see the first time around.  Usually, you can get a glimpse of a secret door in the background while getting through a stage.  By paying attention to your surroundings, you should be able to find the secrets, but the secret stages are way more difficult than the normal stages.  Again, challenge is the name of the game in Mutant Mudds, and if you're up for it, you'll find that precise jumping, hovering, and shooting are going to be needed if you want to get through the extra tough stuff.  On top of all that, you are also timed on each stage so once you feel like you are the master of all things Mutant Mudds, you can go back and try to complete the stages with a better time.

I haven't gotten through the game just yet, but I plan on doing it soon.  Though I am a sucker for a good story line, Mutant Mudds wisely set the story in the background and let it's play mechanics do all the talking.  I strongly recommend you pick up this game.  Though I didn't come across any boss battles, the stages and they way they are developed are reminiscent to those of an early Mega Man game.  Well timed jumps and precise shooting is what is going to get your though this game and once you're done, you can go back and look for those secret stages!  If you want additional info on Mutant Mudds or are wondering on how you can pick up the game for you 3DS, you can find it all on the official Nintendo website here.  Later!