A playful, clear and straightforward platformer
Price: $5/£5
Version: 1.0.3
Size: 269 MB
Platform: iPhone & iPad
Developer: Mobge
Update! Nearly three years on, we thought it was time to revisit this award-winning platformer.
So what’s new? A couple bug fixes aside, the developers have left Oddmar untouched. But since we first reviewed it, its value – like a fine scotch – has only improved. Because we found upon revisiting it that Oddmar is even rarer than we first considered. It’s perfectly priced for what is a solid, IAP-less platformer whose graphics are pure bliss. It feels like a hand-drawn Astrix cartoon and we still love it for it. This update is purely to say if you didn’t play Oddmar at the time, or have never heard of it, well, you’ve now heard of it, and you should play it.
Revised rating: A rare gem. ★★★★★
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Our original review, written in May 2018, is presented in its entirety below.
In a tale chock-full of beautifully rendered cutscenes, Oddmar tells the story of a young viking – sluggish, selfish, and entirely unworthy of entering the grand kingdom of Valhalla. However, when the inhabitants of Oddmar’s village go missing, he’s given the chance to prove his worth. Using powers from the magical forest, Oddmar embarks on a quest to rid the forest of evil beasts, find the villagers, and enter Valhalla.
On the surface this a familiar ride – collect coins and squish the bad guys
This is certainly a premium game – not in price – it’s $5 price tag is entirely reasonable because this game could have easily appeared on a more focused gaming platform and sold for much more. The graphics are beautiful and the intricacies in each level of this adventure-platformer are meticulously detailed. The gameplay is fluid too, and easy to pick up with no big learning curve.
The design frequently evolves as Oddmar makes his way through different worlds
The game takes place over a series of worlds – from dense forests to more fiery locations. And unlike other graphically-led platformers, Oddmar doesn’t over-complicate itself. You’ll find yourself happily bouncing the viking from wall-to-wall, slaying monsters with a sword or axe, and generally proving your might as a hero.
The game itself is a collaboration between Mobge, a small Turkish developer and Senri, known for the hugely popular iOS game Leo’s Fortune. Oddmar easily lives up to the hype of that predecessor balancing enjoyable gameplay with a rich world full of intriguing characters. Each world has a handful of levels before imaginatively making use of ‘boss levels’. For example, the first level ends with you racing through the forest, chased by a giant tree monster, pulling down the landscape as it pursues.
The environment is laid out to assist Oddmar in his journey – use walls, vines, and enemies to reach platforms and coins
It’s also ambitious in a way that users don’t have to worry about – the world created simply amplifies and builds on what is a relatively straight-forward platformer. By this we mean that the level of detail in the world is astounding, without distracting from the gameplay. Each time Oddmar moves or jumps there’s a fluidity to his movement and idiosyncratic actions that go unnoticed on the surface, but it heightens the entire experience, leaving the user to only consciously focus on moving through the level.
Game mechanics continually develop – at one point you ride through a level on the back of a wild beast
Elsewhere there are little nuances to keep the game running. For example, some levels have a shop where you can use collected coins to buy new weapons or shields. There are also a few ‘bonus’ levels, such as a recurring dream sequence where Oddmar turns into an auto-runner and you have to outrun angry villagers that the character is imagining from his life before he found purpose.
Boss levels are imaginative and larger than life – there’s never a dull moment in Oddmar
There are very few bad points to pick up in this game – the difficulty can be a tad too easy at times, but it does get tougher as you make your way through. And to be honest, we found the sheer pleasure of playing vastly outweighs this minor point. Oddmar is perhaps the finest platformer to grace the App Store.