Platoonz Review

In Platoonz, one of the newest titles from the mobile development juggernaut Chillingo, players take control of a small unit of elite (if wacky) soldiers. It is their job to guide these soldiers through linear side-scrolling missions of destruction through enemy lines. The game is fun, cartoony, and over the top. Unfortunately, the gameplay is a bit stale and even though there is a lot going on in the game players end up performing repetitive tasks in each level.

There is definitely an emphasis on the "toonz" portion of Platoonz. All environments and characters have a certain Saturday morning cartoon sensibility about them. The animations are interesting and unique, the game opting for a more puppet like style that makes it stand out a bit from the crowd. The gameplay is super simple, which on one hand makes it easy to play on a mobile device but on the other makes it often repetitive and sometimes a bit bland.

In each level, players can deploy up to four soldiers. Players control these soldiers by swiping in different directions to make them advance, retreat, and duck. Players also tap on the enemies in their path to get the soldiers to attack them. Occasionally, the player can activate special powers and attacks by pushing buttons on the bottom of the screen. These powers changes and improve over the course of the game. The player can also upgrade their soldiers, giving them more health, defense, and attack power.

The problem with Platoonz is that moving soldiers forward, dodging enemy traps and bombs, and then taping on enemies one by one as they are encountered can get tedious. Even though the game looks great and plays very well there isn't enough variation in the gameplay to keep it consistently entertaining. There are some boss battles which change up the mechanics a bit, but the bulk of the game is walk, duck, shoot, repeat.