Pixeline and the Jungle Treasure

It's hard to do 2D platforming well. There's relatively little you can do in terms of innovation, but you have to get the core mechanics spot on or the end product will be flat.

Pixeline and the Jungle Treasure just about manages to avoid most of the pitfalls, building an interesting and creative mobile platformer.

Pixeline is a young girl with big dreams who decides to go off in search of treasure in a jungle. To do this, she traverses a game made up of platforms, enemies, coins, and imminent danger.

You use the Xperia Play's D-pad to control Pixeline's movement, pushing X to jump and using the shoulder buttons to scroll through the various different animal forms that you unlock as you work your way through the game.

These animal forms - a bear, a lizard, and a bird - are the game's one big idea. Once you've collected the forms, previously inaccessible parts of levels open up, meaning you're not going to see everything on every level on your first run through.

Everything in Pixeline and the Jungle Treasure has been seen before. You collect shiny objects, and picking up a hundred gives you an extra life.

Some platforms disappear after a set amount of time, and some move about the screen, giving you access to different areas.

This is almost platforming by numbers, but the introduction of the animal forms, whilst not spectacularly original, at least adds a touch of novelty to the proceedings.

In the end, it's Pixeline's charm that saves it from the doldrums.

It's fun, engaging, and manages to put a smile on your face even though this is the hundredth time you've done everything it has to offer.

Throw in an excellent control system and you've got a solid if unremarkable platformer.