The game’s story is quick and simple: one mysterious night Tommy and his group of alien friends are beamed aboard a Robitix spaceship so they can be the new attractions for the galaxy’s biggest space-zoo. The team is however separated during transportation to the ship but the aliens manage to quickly locate each other and through the power of teamwork, set out to rescue Tommy and return to Earth.
Like several other puzzle games before it, Pet Alien consists of 80 mazes which are scattered across five different “levels” of the Robitix spaceship. Essentially, your main objective in each maze is to find all the energy crystals so you can open up an exit pad and proceed to the next. Of course, it’s not just a simple matter of making your way to the exit. Most mazes will have a few short puzzles to solve such as activating switches in a precise order to turn off security lasers or lower obstacles that are blocking your path. You’ll also have to avoid robot guards that use the old “walk in a straight line” tactic while at the same time, learn their patterns and utilise them to blow up obstructing bombs. If you do end up making contact with an enemy or hazardous object though, you will automatically have to restart the maze. Occasionally, key cards are also required to open security gates. However, generally they’re there just to provide a diversion and change the pace of the game slightly.
We don't want to know where that tongue's been.
As mentioned, Pet Alien makes use of all the aliens’ different abilities to mix things up a bit. Gumpers, a pink gorilla-like alien, has the ability to smash certain objects. However, due to his size, he can’t walk through normal-sized walkways and has to be switched with one of the other aliens. Dinko, a green dinosaur alien, has the ability to dash against conveyor belts and make it past time-critical passageways. Scruffy, a purple dog who reminds us a little of Yoshi from the Mario series, has the ability to crawl through small spaces and use his tongue to reach objects, in what would otherwise be unreachable places. Swanky, a blue ant, is able to move crates and place them on switches or use them to block out ray beams. Last but not least, Flip, some sort of mutated chicken, is able to fly for a short period over hazardous objects and conveyor belts. The inclusion of the system is by no means original however it will cause you to think over how you go making your way to the maze’s exit. For example, you may start the maze as Scruffy and need to use his tongue to reach crystals that are place outside the maze boundaries. However, lasers are blocking the way so you’ll need to use Swanky to move a crate over a switch which stops the lasers. Switching between characters is implemented by using switch pads that will turn the current alien you’re controlling into the one pictured on the pad. There are also wild pads that allow you to manually select any alien you wish to take control of.
In addition to the mazes, there are also boss battles at the end of each level of the Roboitix ship which are fought using one of the aliens and utilising their special ability. Generally, the battles are reminiscent of old-school games in that the camera is placed at a bird’s eye view and the boss will have particular attack patterns and weakness which you must learn and take advantage of. In terms of how each alien utilises their ability, it varies from smashing the boss when it exposes its underside or activating lasers by hitting a switch.
The new art of drumming.
Unfortunately, Pet Alien is not without its faults. Despite having a total of 80 mazes, many of them use the same basic elements earlier mazes introduced to players and as such, much of the game becomes repetitive. Although you will initially spend a minute or two working out exactly what to do, from then on it’s more or less pretty straightforward and even children, the game’s target audience, wouldn’t have too much difficulty solving the puzzles. There’s also a serious lack of touch-screen controls with only four out of the five bonus mini-games (unlocked by beating a boss) utilising the DS’ main design feature. On top of this, the mini-games themselves only offer sort bursts of fun such as “avoid the flying the tyres while collecting crystals,” “hit the drums to match the tune” or “hit the cup that contains the item” and are nothing that you won’t find on flash-based game websites. In terms of the general use of both screens, the action takes place on the top screen while the touch screen is only used to display the number crystals and key cards you’ve obtained, hardly innovative.
Ironically, even though the game is fairly average overall, it sports some of the best looking 3D character models and environments you’ll likely ever see in a DS game. Everything is very vibrant and detailed in colour and matches the TV shows visual style fairly well. In terms of Pet Alien’s soundtrack, while not as impressive, is quirky in nature and has a techno-alien theme to it which is suitable to the game’s nature. However, it’s nothing particularly special and you definitely wouldn’t want it to play over your stereo or whatever music setup you have.
Not exactly the spider from Resident Evil is it?
Although it is nice to see some classic maze puzzling make a comeback, in general Pet Alien is fairly average and brings nothing new to the genre. It also hardly takes advantage of the touch screen and the mazes start to get repetitive over time. Although the graphics are pretty impressive, it’s best only the die-hard Pet Alien fans get this title or those who are desperate for a puzzle game which has players collecting crystals and making their way through mazes.
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