So 2010 is now over and everyone has almost recovered from the New Year festivities. Now it’s time to get back to work and hit you gamers with my first review of 2011, which I previewed not that long ago. The title in question is the very charming and artistic XBLA platform puzzler ilomilo from Southend Interactive.

Ilomilo is a game that looks ultra cute! The first game that comes to mind when you see this is Little Big Planet and the artistic direction of this game is very similar. As we all know, graphics alone doesn’t make up a great game so let’s take a look at the gameplay of this gem of a title.

The layout of this puzzler has allowed the developers to include a main story and a sub story. The main storyline consists of the two primary characters, Ilo and Milo, who are two friends that meet up each day until the darkness falls, then go their separate ways until the next day. The only problem is that each new day, the path they use to meet up changes so they always have trouble finding each other which is where the adventure comes into play.
You control both Ilo and Milo by switching between them and navigate your way through the floating cubed platforms on each level to reunite them over four chapters. Your score depends on how many moves you make in each level and instead of high score chasing you are trying to get the lowest score possible by making the least amount of moves.

Throughout each level there are a fair amount of collectibles to grab whilst solving the puzzles to reunite the two buddies. You have images, soundtracks, memory segments and 3 different coloured Safkas. Memory segments are scenes from Ilo and Milos past and fill up a meter as you collect them. Each time the meter hits maximum capacity, you get a piece of a postcard which will be different for each of the levels. The Safkas come in three colours and once you collect the total of each colour, you will rewarded with a bonus level per colour, per chapter. The bonus levels also tell us the sub story about a fox and a hunter so collecting the Safkas is a great little bit of extra incentive to unlock and play all the bonus levels.

Navigating through each level could not be simpler as you traverse over the cubed floating platforms. The idea is to control both Ilo and Milo over these cubed platforms and finally meet up with each other which is simple enough to start with but will become much more of a challenge as you progress through the game. The various items in this surreal world will help you on your way from red carpets that allow you to walk on each side of a single cube, to squares you can pick up to fill gaps, extend platforms and open a trap door to get to inaccessible areas. There are even apple eating animals to ride on the back of to get to certain areas.

While the later levels can be hard, once you solve it you then see how simple the puzzle actually was and there is always a definite sense of achivement every time you complete a level. This stops the game from being too frustrating, although there will be one or two levels that will have you pulling your hair out but would we want anything less from a puzzle game?

The graphics remind me of the Lenor softener adverts and are so cute you just want to reach out, grab them and smell their fabric softener goodness. Even the backgrounds in each level are just outstanding with various animations going on such as sock puppet type creatures popping out of cubes. Whilst Little Big Planet may be a PS3 exclusive, this title goes to show that the Xbox could have a similar title that would be just as good.

The musical score in this title consists of simple yet very effective instrumental tracks and fit the visual style of the game spectacularly well. There is even an achievement to get which will see you play the instrumental part of the track on the main menu. Play this title long enough and you will be humming the music in your head for the rest of the day.

Not content with just giving us the one title, Southend Interactive has also included the original Ilomilo Shuffle as an unlockable extra. This retro title may not have the appeal of the main game but its addictive high score chasing quality will definitely keep you hooked. This bonus game has its own online leaderboard as well as an achievement to unlock by getting a score of 500 or more.

Ilomilo does include multiplayer support but only offline and gives a great opportunity to grab the missus for an evening of relaxed gaming fun. The multiplayer will see each player control either Ilo or Milo, so both of you will need to co-operate to complete levels successfully so make sure you’re not in the dog house! My only wish was that they would have included online multiplayer.

Overall, ilomilo is one of the best multi-dimensional and visually delightful puzzlers out there on XBLA. The title eases you in gently and then cranks up the difficulty level whilst managing to keep you just below the line of going bald by tearing your hair out. I would definitely recommend this title for puzzle fans, especially if you are looking for something different from the genre. The developers are also planning on releasing DLC in the form of Chapters 5 and 6 not long after release so there’s still more gaming goodness to come.

As another bonus, earning achivements in ilomilo, Raskulls and World of Keflings will also unlock playable characters in each of these games.

Ilomilo is available on the XBLM today for a great price of 800MSP.

Overall 8/10

Graphics

+ The cutest I have seen on an XBLA title.
Nice background animation.
Did I mention how cute the graphics are?

- Can’t fault the graphics

Sound

+ Simple yet effective instrumental score.
Even the sound effects are spot on.

- Not much variety in music but won’t ruin your experience.

Gameplay

+ Simple yet increasingly difficult puzzler.
Great use of having two switchable characters.
Most levels stay under the “just pure frustration” factor.
Plenty of collectables.

- A few levels are borderline near impossible.
Although there are plenty to collect, replay value becomes limited after this.