Blendimals Review

Developer: Exploding Cow
Price: $2.99
Version Reviewed: 1.40
App Reviewed on: iPhone 5

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At first glanceBlendimals probably doesn’t look like much. I mean it’s a cartoony platformer with weird-looking animals in it; those aren’t exactly in short supply these days. Well don’t let any of that trick you into passing it by, because there’s an extremely cool puzzle-platformer hiding behind that wacky facade.

The world of Blendimals is full of a whole of of fauna that’s a bit... off. And they all dream of going to the moon. Problem is that there are a whole lot of obstacles between them and their goal - obstacles that will force them to work together if they want to suceed. And I mean really work together.

What does that mean? It means tossing multiple animals in a giant blender and mixing them up into a weird sort of abominationhybrid that possesses the singular abilities of each of the base creatures added to the concoction. In other words, the rabbit jumps and the rhino charges through rocks - blend the two and you can jump and break through barriers. To be honest, I’m kind of in love with Blendimals because of this idea.

What’s really captivating about all of this, aside from how well everything controls with simple tap/swipe/drag commands, is the way in which the game requires you to really ponder a stage’s layout. If you see soft soil you can bet you’re going to need the mole to dig through it, and blowing fans means it’s time to bring out the puffer fish (yeah, it’s a floating fish, you got a problem with that?). It gets even more interesting once you can hybridize more than two animals at once.

Blendimals is a clever puzzle-platformer that’s charming through and through. The goofy animals are adorable in their awkwardness, and the same goes for the bizarre chimera that is the platforming gameplay. I highly recommend giving it a whirl (pun definitely intentional and I’m not sorry).