Game Reviews

Storm in a Teacup

Star onStar onStar onStar halfStar off
Get
Storm in a Teacup

The key to a great platformer is tight control. No matter how intelligent or intricate the level design, a game can fall to pieces if guiding your character is problematic.

So it says much about Chillingo’s latest that it manages to overcome its control idiosyncrasies, growing into a compelling and worthwhile challenge.

You play as a young boy with a strange haircut inside a magical china cup, gliding across a series of stages in search of sugar lumps.

Directional arrows move you left and right, while a button gives the cup an upward boost, allowing our curiously-coiffed hero to leap to new heights or clear long gaps.

One jump or two?

The object is to reach a target at the end of each stage having collected as many lumps along the way as you can. Special stickers are secreted throughout the levels, often requiring a series of tricky leaps to get to.

Initially, the pace is fairly sedate, but navigating the environments and hazards that stand in your way is more difficult than it needs to be thanks to the inertia of the cup.

Rarely will it come to a complete standstill, and you’ll need to frequently tap left or right to adjust your position or risk falling to your doom.

A brew to a kill

That the game occasionally seems to misread your commands – moving left when you’ve clearly tapped right – only adds to the frustration, and the timing of the double-jump rarely comes naturally.

Checkpoints and infinite lives ease the pain, however, and after a period of acclimatisation you’ll start to relish the increasingly tough tests. Some inventive environmental puzzles add variety, while the unusual art style provides plenty of visual highlights.

If the limited Survival mode seems like nothing more than a
token addition, the main game offers enough platforming joy to compensate for its early stumbles.

It may not be everyone’s cup of char, but given time to infuse Storm in a Teacup proves to be a tasty blend of classic ingredients.

Storm in a Teacup

It takes some getting used to, but stick with this and you’ll find a platformer of real quality
Score
Chris Schilling
Chris Schilling
Chris has been gaming since the age of five, though you wouldn't think it to see him play. Thankfully, his knowledge of the medium is as impressive as his unerring ability to fail at Angry Birds.