In a step that bodes well for the once entirely arcade-driven publisher, Midway's Dr Muto also mixes familiar ingredients for the perfect batch of platforming goodness, but by placing gamers into the world of an unlikely platforming anti-hero, a sketchy, untrustworthy mad scientist, it's taken the first step away from the pack. What Midway's internal team has created is a hilariously kooky character who, through ill-advised scientific methods, attacks, jumps and bonks his way across a visionary new world that recalls the wily, bustling imaginative worlds once offered by Shiny Entertainment's first platformer, Earthworm Jim. Yeah, much of this game is indeed familiar, but it feels so fresh and goofy, and it stars such a wonderfully oddball lead character that it overcompensates nearly all of its familiar shortcomings.
Story
Dr. Muto is indeed a breakthrough platform character. And if not that, at the very least he breaks free of the standard stereotype. No fur, long ears, nor wacky attitude, Dr. Muto is certainly not cute nor cuddly in any way. In fact, he's actually the very antithesis of the stereotype. He's an archetype mad scientist, cloaked in white lab coat, coiffed with vertical, white-streaked hair, and he's short. He's geeky to a fault, quirky, talks in a mumbling, nasally fashion, and he's generally just crazy. I like him.
His is the story of near-genius, crackpot scientist who's remained at the fringes of society all his life. From the time he blew up the school science fair to high school when he built his own robotic girlfriend, to the present, when he's been given the responsibility of tapping a new source of world energy, but instead blows his own planet to bits. Yep, only these are videogame bits, meaning that giant chunks of the planet still remain floating through the solar system, and if he can collect the right molecular data, find the right materials, and put together a brand new plan, he can restore his planet and provide it with enough energy for everybody.
The world Dr. Muto inhabits shows off the highly creative and visionary minds of at least one of Midway's apparently very repressed development teams, who have been cranking out arcade ports for God knows how long, and the result is impressive. After the game's initial (and very long) intro movie tells the story of Muto's mistake, we find him floating adrift on a chunk of rock, upon which his laboratory rests. In it are his Igor-like helper, a super-intelligent AI computer system called Al (which very much mocks HAL from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey), and a stash of machines and inventions. From his telescope, players aim their view at least four planets, where Muto must visit, collect, fight and return with the goods. Al narrates the game with functional information and chimes in with comic asides, ranging from poking fun at Muto, to his pathetic "life" and offers occasionally and subtle sex jokes. In short, Al is cool beans.
Gameplay
In his armory, Muto owns a unique hand weapon that blasts enemies or temporarily stuns them. He can jump, double jump, climb, hover (he has rocket powered boots), swim and, naturally, hit switches. Oddly, he cannot run in human form, instead he walks with a strange, goofy prance of sorts, head and body tilted back, and led by his tiny feet. But these basics are just the trench works. Much of the gameplay is found elsewhere in this creative 3D platformer.
Fulfilling his duties as a mad scientist, Dr. Muto has naturally laid out plans for all possibilities, including creating giant weapons, spaceships and mechs. His plans ALSO include the ability to transform into various creatures. These creatures are essential to the gamut of 2D and 3D styles of platforming gameplay found throughout Muto's travels. The list of creatures includes a mouse, spider, gorilla, fish, a fly and a Pterodactyl, each presenting players with unique abilities; and each presenting themselves with the silliest, most entertaining version of those creatures possible, since they all retain visible characteristics of Dr. Muto. The Spider has eight eyes, but two of them are covered by glasses; the mouse is a mouse, of course, but with a lab coat and a small moustache; and the gorilla, well, it's kind of like the Hulk version of Dr. Muto, with really, really big hair, shoulder, and long arms, ending in curved, hanging knuckles.
Muto transforms into each creature with just the push of a button and by pursuing his quest, he manages to find crafty ways of getting into otherwise impossible areas. The mouse performs the most classic of 2D and 3D platforming tasks, jumping, swatting and collecting, and he affords that special rhythm that makes platformers of old so much fun. He can get through gratings and small areas otherwise unreachable. As the gorilla, Muto's far more powerful and has the ability to hang from gratings to reach his goals, but his weakness is sluggishness. As the Spider, Muto climbs webbing, whether on the walls of the ceilings (giving players entirely new perspectives on the levels), shoots webs to climb over breaches, and drops little poop bombs -- living bombs with two eyes that explode after about 10 seconds. (He also can shoot these.) In fish form, his fins blast off into projectiles, he can eat otherwise deadly Charks (yes, sharks with a C) and he can turn into a powerful buzz saw. He's also naturally capable of swimming without requiring air and he can jump quite far out of the water.
Transforming into the zoo of forms is easy and throughout the levels Muto must use the different forms to complete levels, but in a more sophisticated way, he must alter forms to beat bosses. With each boss, players will find that any of the several forms work to win, but some ways work better than others. For instance, against the first boss, switching from mouse to Muto works OK, but you'll find it easier to switch from the mouse to the gorilla form, since the ape takes off more damage than Muto's zapper. The rest of the levels are devised with a mixture of openly designed levels, some old-school 2D levels, and various linear paths with multiple layers (upper and lower paths, to be more specific). They're also created with such a rich imagination and organic form that you'll find yourself exploring for hours, learning how to approach and think about the way the game is designed, something that happens when you're really enjoying a game.
Muto collects a lot of stuff, but all of it becomes part of his bigger set of mad plans, which makes it more fun than normal. For instance, when he sucks the DNA out of enemy creatures he uses it for creating new transformations. By accumulating secret parts, he builds a massive mech. And by collecting molecules he's helping to cobble the earth into its mostly original form. Players are given infinite lives, various checkpoints and save points, but they'll die often because they'll need some time getting used to the controls and the camera angles, the latter of which is the game's biggest fault. The camera is by no means poor, in fact 80% of the time it's very good, but in many instances it gets in the way and assists your early death.
Adding to the rich creative settings and design, Muto collects an incredible array of items, molecules, gadget parts, DNA, health and other stuff that assists in developing new abilities to act, fight and overpower his enemies. They're all equivalent to the standard powers-ups of other platformers to a degree, but they're presented in a more unique, mad scientist kind of way. By extracting the DNA of specific creatures he tallies enough material to formulate new versions of himself (all of which are earned). By finding secret doors, he finds extra large molecules, health, and in each level, secret mech parts, which assist in his plans to create a giant, well, mech robot, the purpose of which is revealed later.
It's all an incredibly likeable game experience. Much like Earthworm Jim before it, Dr. Muto reworks the standard platform formula with rich and creative platform exercises, be it through transforming creatures, multi-tiered levels, or by applying its mad scientist perspective on things. And naturally, none of this would be possible if Dr. Muto wasn't infused with a slightly dislikeable oddball charm and personality.
Graphics
Midway's crystal clear vision of Dr. Muto's world has been delivered in an ornate, highly original graphic fashion. It's a freaky, cartoonish mish-mash, an inventive fusion of creatures, insects and machinery, and in some small ways it reminds me of MDK. It's populated with weird fire beetles, oddball sharks, monkey robots, Gomers (worker creatures developed for the sole, happy purpose of torturing), cyber-dogs, jellyfish bosses, and on and on. Each creature is created with few seeming restrictions. Even better, the final depictions are well-crafted things, built with irregular shapes, excellent texturing and exquisite animations.
Particularly worth mentioning is the excellent animations. Each creature appears to have several dozen of its own, and Dr. Muto's own creature animations are even more refined. The first animation to get a smile from me was the standing animation of the mouse: His whole body is quick, twitchy and filled with nervousness. His head darts from side to side, whiskers twitching, legs shaking with nervousness, and he itches. The other creature animations are just as good, if not better. They're all comical. Even in Muto form, he acts the paranoid scientist, looking into the camera, asking, "Who's there?"
Well crafted through and through, the Muto engine isn't as impressive as say, Blinx', but it's still solid and performs its tasks well. The water textures are decent, and the fire and explosions are good. The particle engine creates better than decent bits of fire and solid bits of exploded things are constantly flying through the air, while there is a substantial amount of objects on screen at one time to create a living, breathing world. Occasionally, enemies fade out from view and reappear when you move closer, but it's not so distracting and doesn't affect gameplay significantly.
Sound
Much like the graphics, the sound department comes through with flying colors. The music comes in the flavor of creepy sci-fi themes, with special synth sounds creating b-movie style soundscapes. It's all right on the money, replete with good quality sound.
The sound effects and voice-overs, however, are where the sounds shine most; the main focus being Dr. Muto himself. A lead character that does indeed talk, Muto's squeaky, nasally voice is perfectly fleshed out with shouts of euphoric exclamation, derogatory curses, and low-sounding mumbles. When he collects something of importance, he screams out in victory, accompanied by painful hip-thrusting action, and when he dies, his voice shrieks in long, agonizing screams.
From what I could determine, the sound effects are all entirely original. Every sound is genuinely cool, out of the ordinary, and not from some stock library of TV sounds that has been thrust upon us over the years. His silly laser gun makes oddball sounds, and everything from collecting items to breaking objects to picking up Gomers provide unusual, likeable sound effects.
All in all, Dr. Muto is a pleasure to listen to, be it in the voice-acting department, music, or special effects.