Elasto Mania Hands On

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But then as you reach for the X button the umpteenth time for a restart, you grab the right trigger by accident and something weird happens: you turn into Otto Octavius. Or, to be more precise, a grappling hook with a claw hand flashes from your body diagonally up ahead of you, like a UFO Catcher bursting out of your chest. It's disconcerting. Playing around a bit, you realise you can hook onto platforms and haul yourself in.

Then you realise you can grab loose objects and pull them to you as well. If there's a forklift pallet leaning against an upright log, for example, you can tip forward carefully, fire the grapple to the pallet and then turn and haul it out of the way, giving yourself a free run at the log to topple it. Then you realise you can use it to rein in the collectible stars, so if you can't find an angle to launch yourself to gather one, you might be able to time a jump and grapple it instead. Holding A or up on the d-pad then hauls it in.

Which gives you an idea, which leads to the best of all: you can grab the end-of-level smiley face and tow it around the whole stage like a ball and chain. It doesn't affect your acceleration, speed or braking, and when you collect the final star, you hit it instantly. On bigger levels, where it's more difficult to locate all the stars, or more perilous to trace a path to the end goal, it's a boon. Except the game is partly conscious of that, and occasionally stops you doing it, as with a level that involves descending past numerous ramps and crates, and then clambering back to the top. The end-of-level smiley is stuck fast near the start.

The mystery grapple. Quite why they added this, we don't know, but it doesn't interfere with the core experience too much.

In fact, by the time we left the game, it was becoming a little unpredictable, although mostly in a good way. There were more and more physics objects (including a topsy-turvy rope-bridge), and seemingly arbitrary additions like bounce pads, and spinning wheels to cross, and planet-like rocky circles with gravity fixed at the centre.

Mobirate also plans to include an online leaderboard system, a level editor, and a two-player mode, in addition to the single-player's more-than-60 tracks. Wherever it's come from, it's easy to imagine a cult success. Elasto Mania, like Trials, is about doing absurd things easily; and then later it's maximising traction, stopping without tipping, conserving momentum, and flying through the air exactly as you intended. The back-to-the-start punishment for failure might rub us up the wrong way in the long run, but it's just as likely we'll call a truce and celebrate the rest of the ride.

Failing that, it's as good an excuse as we've had since Trials to dig out the Elasto Mania shareware and remind ourselves. It's barely aged at all and it probably runs on a toaster. Try.