Gaming Target - Xbox: Dr. Muto

Written by Gavin Wright on December 17, 2002

Full Review: Want an idea of just how low the budget ran for this game? They were forced to run a Langer's Juice ad on pg. 19 of the manual. No kidding.

Midway, despite all its early arcade success and its big-name franchises, has never been a favorite company of mine. Maybe it has something to do with the near-uniform lack of polish exhibited by the bulk of their releases, or perhaps it's their content to repackage and re-release the same games year in and year out despite little or no critical acclaim. That might just by why I, as a critic, have come away so pleasantly and unexpectedly surprised after digging into the company's latest offering, an anomalous platforming game by the name of Dr. Muto. The quirky little platformer goes against nearly any and all preconceived notions one might have, presenting an imaginative, highly-entertaining game that's hard not to enjoy.

Dr. Muto is an unlikely hero for such a game. He's not cute and fuzzy, or even physically appealing in any such way. He's your stereotypical mad scientist, donning a white lab coat and green tie. He also has somewhat of a penchant for wacky inventions, even if they tend to get him into a bit of trouble every now and then. He speaks in mostly mumbled, incoherent gibberish, and with a very quirky, overly-confident demeanor. But at the same time, he's oddly likeable.

Dr. Muto's home planet Midway is facing an energy crisis. The mayor of Midway reluctantly chooses to employ Dr. Muto's energy-saving invention in an effort to end the ordeal. However, something goes terribly wrong and the device ends up blowing the planet to bits. Muto quickly comes up with a plan to rebuild the planet, a plan that involves building a large robot that will somehow be able to piece the world back together. But in order to do so, he must first collect the parts for the machine, which can be found scattered throughout four nearby planets.

As you might expect, Muto is somewhat weak by himself. His main weapon is an apparatus that looks somewhat like a remote control, and allows him to deal out two forms of attack. The first of which is an electrical shock, which can be used to stun enemies as well as to flip switches and turn on electrical devices. In addition, it can extract DNA from certain animals that in turn can be put toward useful abilities. The second is your standard attack, which comes out as red pulsing rings and can kill most normal creatures in a single blast or two. While the combat system certainly can't be criticized on the grounds of being too complex, its overly-simplistic nature is anything but creative.

Through his superior intellect, Muto has devised a method that allows him to morph into one of a handful of different creatures at the touch of a button. The creatures are a result of the accumulated DNA of multiple life forms, so before you can use the ability you must collect a certain number of DNA samples from the various life forms. Doing so is easy enough Ц you simply apply your stun weapon on the desired creature and they'll normally drop the DNA strand right in front of them. Once you've acquired the formula, Muto will be able to change forms whenever the space you're occupying permits it.

Each morph-able creature serves a different and distinct role in the game. The mouse, which is available right from the beginning, allows you to get through tunnels and holes that couldn't be accessed in human form. As a mouse he controls in much the same fashion, although being four-legged does have some slight effect on his maneuverability. The fish is the only creature capable of going underwater, so you'll have to rely on him when doing anything of that nature. As you might expect, the fish is speedy in the water, yet on land he can only flap around slowly. The biggest and strongest of the animals is the gorilla, which in addition to being a lot stronger than anyone else, is also capable of climbing on certain surfaces. Each animal form plays uniquely, providing a nice change of pace in times that it's needed most.

As a platformer, Dr. Muto is simple and fairly addictive. Actually, simple wouldn't quite reasonably describe the entire game, because there are parts that present a moderate challenge. But for the most part, the game tries its best to keep things somewhat clear-cut. In his human form Muto has control over a modest array of moves. He can jump, double-jump, and hover on the way down, but that's about it. However, since each animal form has their own unique set of abilities, you never feel as if you're limited in terms of the things you can do. Since the style of play is constantly changing, the game always manages to feel fresh. Dr. Muto welcomes just about every platforming convention ever created, but in fact they're blended together so convincingly that you'd hardly give it a second thought.

СAl', a super-computer developed by Dr. Muto, serves as his guide and constant companion throughout the game. He takes all the different components that Muto finds and uses them to compile various formulas and blueprints. Al has become so advanced that he's actually taken on his very own personality, which he frequently uses to mock and insult the doctor whenever given the opportunity to do so.

Aside from doing battle with enemies, your main goal calls for the collection of hundreds of little items and parts, many of which are to be used in the creation of one of Muto's several Сmad' inventions. The most common of these are isotopes, which are the basic energy resource that's used to run everything in Dr. Muto's laboratory. In total, there are about 4,000 of these tiny objects scattered around the world. Less common are scrap parts, which go towards weapon and equipment upgrades. Genitor pieces are even more difficult to come by. These are the pieces that must be found in order to rebuild the planet, and there are less than twenty to be found in the game. This is of course without mentioning the overabundance of health pickups to be found, or the previously-mentioned DNA strands. While all this collecting business may seem a bit inane, even for a platformer, Dr. Muto manages to keep things enjoyable by constantly showing you reward for your efforts.

A flawed camera system is easily the game's most notable fault. The problems aren't always evident, but they tend to be at their worst during the most inopportune of times. In some cases the camera will get stuck under a moving platform. Other times, the camera may shift upward while you're falling down, resulting in a lot of blind jumps. In tight spaces, it often shifts to an awkward in-the-body view, and worse yet it's agonizingly slow in shifting back. As a general rule of thumb, it's never a good idea to attempt to manipulate the camera view yourself, as it usually does a lot more harm than good. As I said, the problems don't stick with the game every step of the way, only enough to make you wish they weren't there.

As a multiplatform release, it's understandable that the visuals can't quite compete with that of its Xbox counterparts. That's not to say it's all bad, in fact the graphics are very solid on some merits. The character models are extremely well-constructed, and their animations are on par with any of Disney's animated movies. Plus, the explosions and fire effects are pretty decent as well. But unfortunately, the engine is held back by a few technical restraints. The draw distance is often rather pathetic, as enemies and objects typically won't appear until they're about twenty steps in front of you. There are also some cases of slowdown, but never really to a point that it's unbearable. In addition, the texture work is pretty weak, with most surfaces looking dull and washed out. Certainly not representative of the best the Xbox has to offer in terms of graphics, but at least they got some things right.

The background music and sound effects are typical of what you would expect to hear from a classic sci-fi film. The music is never too intimidating, but at least it does its job well enough. Sound effects are mostly comical beeps, zaps, and other oddities, which work to give the game a unique feel, and the voice acting is about as good as can be, particularly Dr. Muto's unintelligible, slightly nasal tone. All in all, the game is a joy to listen to.