GENRE
	Platform
	DEVELOPER
	DMA Designs
	PUBLISHER
	Nintendo
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1
	CONTROLLER PAK
	no
	RUMBLE PAK
	no
	RAM PAK
	no
	BUY NOW AT

Once in a while, something completely original and refreshing actually graces the N64. Space Station Silicon Valley, from DMA Design, is such a title. This game is absolutely brilliant. The premise is quite off the wall: You are a robot enroute to an errant space station that is returning to Earth after being gone for 1000 years. During that time, the robots in the station have evolved into all sorts of mechanical animals to better fit the four sections of the station: pastoral, wintery, jungle, and desert. Because of a fight with your human companion over what music to play, you crash into the station, and your body breaks and scatters. All that's left is your "brain"--a microchip with eyes that can crawl like a spider. It quickly hops into the body of a robotic dog killed by your crashing ship, and you become the dog. Can you find all your body sections and reassemble yourself? Can you solve the mysteries and puzzles of each of the 30+ levels before it's too late for Earth? These and other questions await your heroic efforts.

visuals

The graphics are very polished, if simplistic. Everything usually moves along at a smooth frame rate, but some later stages suffer from the dreaded slowdown. This is true slowdown too, not just reduction of the frame rate. Everything will go into slow motion when the game can't maintain 30 fps. That's a shame. But those who have called the graphics ugly just didn't get into the style of the art. It's all cartoony and, well, stylistic! The animal designs and movements are extremely varied and hilarious. (I love it when they bounce their heads to the beat of the music.) No more polygons than absolutely necessary are used in the landscapes, but overall, the style works well with the light tone of the game. And there is a lot of variety in the level design as well, through four completely different environments.

audio

Sound is good. I even like the music, despite its intentional elevator overtones. Part of the humor here is that background music plays from thumping speakers laid out around the stages. The closer you are to a speaker, the louder the music gets, up to the point where you actually feel it through the Rumble Pak. If you destroy all the speakers, the music stops. There are a ton of sound effects, some absolutely gut-busting funny. Wait until you hear the hyena--infectious laughter indeed. A variety of looney-tunes-y sound effects accompany your actions.

gameplay

The main gameplay element, which sends SS SV over the top, is your ability to possess the body of any dead robotic animal. Sounds lurid, but it's actually quite funny. Once you've killed an animal, you can hop out of your current host into the new one. As each of at least 46 species, you have a wide assortment of skills which must be used creatively to solve all the puzzles, and reach all the necessary places. You get a summary of each animal's abilities the first time you inhabit a new type, and also from the video monitor in every stage. I can't even tell you much about the abilities of each creature, because that would be a spoiler. You'll hop, float, punch, fly, shoot, carry things--and that barely scratches the surface. Figuring out the often-wacky ways to put animals to use is very much a part of the exploration/puzzle-solving aspect of the game. The whole thing is so original and deviously designed, that you won't be able to draw much (beyond mechanics) from your experience with other 3D platformers. And "wacky" is a keyword here. You will be laughing your behind off quite often. The game seems hard as nails at first; but everything has a perfectly doable solution. The brain-draining catch is that you have to figure it out.

The gameplay mechanics are finely honed. Control is excellent and intuitive, although some creatures are skittish (as a mouse should be). You will get into the action of the game as much as any of the better platformers. The control layout is very similar to Mario 64's. The good news is you can move around in the near-first-person view, which can be a lot of fun. Battles with other creatures are an absolute blast, and often call for carefully planned hit-and-run attacks. Animal behavior is eerily varied, "realistic", and semi-intelligent, which adds a whole new dimension to the experience. I'm particularly impressed by flocking and leader-follower gregariousness, as well as natural predator/prey fight/flight. An exception to this nifty intelligence is when animals get stuck against a wall, and don't seem to know how to change direction away from it. This problem calls for a bit more refinement in the AI. My only peeve with control is that the camera zoom buttons are reversed from the Mario standard. (C-Down zooms in; C-Up zooms out.) Why?

multiplayer

N/A

overall

But enough negatives. Although the game is rated E (Everyone), I congratulate DMA Design for sneaking by Nintendo's censors a delicious, surprisingly devious and somewhat sadistic game in the guise of a Mario clone. The bigger the pile of dead furry woodland creatures, the greater your options. There's also quite a bit of "anal" humor here--you'll see what I mean soon enough, because you must give this game a try. Overall, SS SV is the most satisfying, original, funny, amazing gaming experience I've had in a long while. One caveat is that replay value is limited, since the meat of this trip is puzzle solving, and discovering and learning to use all the inspired originality. Once you've done it, it's done. But there are some wickedly fun bonus stages which keep a best score. And doing everything, including finding all the trophies and purple power balls, will take ages. I highly recommend this gem from the screwball company whose name Doesn't Mean Anything, without hesitation.

9.2/10