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Sneak Peek: Hands-On With Captain Ludwig - The Dizzy Planet Jumper

March 24, 2010

Captain Ludwig faces a tough challenge as you start this game as he needs to jump in space from spinning planet to spinning planet trying to land on every planet in the given galaxy. Captain Ludwig is an upcoming game from Mudloop which is pretty unique for the iPhone, but does share the similar gameplay mechanic of Dizzy Jump. Rather than an endless survival game, it's more of a platformer with a given number of planets in a level, and you need to land on each one. 21 levels will be included at launch, and you have five lives per level. If you miss a planet on a jump that's one life, and you need to turn all black planets white, but you can jump on white planets. As you progress from level to level new obstacles and bonuses are introduced. The obstacles include mines, turrets, and radioactive planets while the bonuses include score boost, life, and shield. The controls are as simple as can be, just tap when Ludwig lines up with the next planet, and he jumps in a straight line to it. Time taken is irrelevant with the only goal landing on every spinning planet in a level, and once you complete all levels there is an end boss. One neat upgrade is the rocket ship which you jump in, and then can fly around though your still susceptible to the same damage from turrets and mines. OpenFeint is also included for online high scores and achievements. The entire game has a minimalistic retro feel that is finely polished. There are various colored backgrounds, but everything else in the game is black and white, and each Ludwig jump has a wispy white trail. Then the included soundtrack is simply a great action techno beat that you can hear in the video. The game is an engaging unique take in the App Store that will having you wanting to complete all 21 levels. The spinning planet is a nice challenging element, and the platformer feel of landing on every planet is much better than simple casual endless. Every level plays different with a new element introduced to always keeps things fresh, and needing to learn on the fly. The spread of the planets gets quite complex, and you may get lost not knowing where the remaining planets are. Luckily there are two features to help you with a subtle guiding arrow as well as a zoom out magnifier to see most of the current level. Having five lives is absolutely essential as there are so many ways to die from mis-timing your jump from a spinning planet to being shot down by turrets, staying more than eight seconds on a radioactive planet, or hitting a shifting mine. Captain Ludwig was just submitted today, and should be out shortly. The game will be released at $0.99 then, and in about a week it will go up to $1.99, with a lite version around that time. Be sure to watch our hands on video of the game in action.

Mentioned apps

Free
Dizzypad - Frog Jump Fun
Dizzypad - Frog Jump Fun
NimbleBit

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