Mighty Milky Way
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DSi
| Mighty Milky Way

With the death of DSiWare on the horizon (followed by its rebirth as 3DSWare), developer WayForward has decided to help the platform go out with a bang.

Mighty Milky Way is a galactic puzzler that excites and innovates, with oodles of fast-paced and carefully thought out planet-hopping to indulge in.

It can feel a little difficult and unforgiving at times, but Mighty Milky Way's clever ideas and gameplay reach for the stars.

High and mighty

You play as Luna, a space-travelling girl on a mission to destroy a giant, dinosaur-like creature with laser-beams coming out of its eyes.

Luna can walk around the circumference of planets, then hop off into outer space, float peacefully along, enter the gravitational field of another planet, and plonk herself down on the surface.

By jumping between planets and asteroids, she needs to navigate each level and reach the portal, while also dodging nasty aliens, electricity, and barbed wire.

It's a weird one - and the craziness doesn't stop there. Luna can also create her own planets by collecting Planet Candy, allowing her to stop at a point and change direction.

Galaxy bar none

So far, so action-orientated, but here's where the puzzle elements come in. If an enemy is occupying a planet you're currently walking on and you jump, it will float away in a straight line.

If two enemies collide, they both explode - so if you time your jumps right it's possible to clear paths of enemies by firing them at each other.

Planets also explode if you jump off them twice. There will often be a planet blocking your path, and you'll need to bounce back and forth between that and another one remove it.

While some levels focus more on bounding around and dodging baddies, others pit you against a series of brain-boggling scenarios that seem impossible to pass until it finally all clicks together in your head.

Boss battles provide even more variety, with the aforementioned laser dinosaur destroying planets with his eyes as you go. The variety of exciting ideas on show kept us playing, and we ploughed through the entire game in one sitting.

A star in the making

Presentation is top-notch, too. While the visuals can look a little sketchy when the camera is zoomed-in, the interface is a treat, with the title screen and world-select screens presented as levels in themselves.

Mighty Milky Way makes excellent use of the touchscreen and dual screens.

The top screen shows a map of the current level, which is incredibly useful for lining up a very long jump.

Tapping Luna makes her jump, while holding down on her while she floats creates a new planet. It's very intuitive and makes for accessible play, with Luna shouting short, cute French phrases for added personality.

There's even support for both left- and right-handed people, with the camera and speed-up/slow-down mechanisms on both the D-pad and the action buttons.

Mighty frustrating

Mighty Milky Way is a lot of fun, but certain levels later in the game can be quite frustrating.

It's not simply that the game is difficult - the problem is the combination of long, drawn out levels with unforgiving deaths.

Mistime that last jump after a few minutes of careful leaping, and you'll have to do the zone all over again. Moments like that can put a real downer on the action.

Mighty Milky Way is also a fairly short game - you can rattle through it in a couple of hours, and there's no replay value to speak of.

Even so, Mighty Milky Way is definitely one of the best DSiWare titles to date, allowing the ill-fated platform to go out on a high.

Mighty Milky Way

If you're looking to grab a DSiWare title in preparation for the upcoming 3DS eShop, Mighty Milky Way would be a mighty good choice, providing plenty of fun and intrigue
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Mike Rose
Mike Rose
An expert in the indie games scene, Mike comes to Pocket Gamer as our handheld gaming correspondent. He is the author of 250 Indie Games You Must Play.