There's certainly no shortage of platform games around at the moment, ranging from the brilliant to the downright dismal. The fact is that in this genre the competition is so strong that you need a couple of new ideas, or at least new slants on existing ideas, to even have a chance of rivalling the best. Sly Raccoon had beautiful cel-shaded graphics and a big stealth element whilst Ratchet & Clank had a charismatic double act and loads of gizmos. Fortunately Dr. Muto is well equipped to compete, with his range of wacky inventions and his ability to transform into bizarre animal mutations.

Dr. Muto is firmly an old school platform game. Whilst everyone seems to be pushing games developers into completely redefining genres all the time, it is almost overlooked that most genres work very well just as they are, thank you very much. So it's refreshing to see that the spirit and design of Dr. Muto is that of the 3D platformer, where you must destroy enemies, collect various items, accomplish objectives and negotiate some very fiendish level designs. However, before anyone starts to cry "derivative," I would like to point out that Dr. Muto's various animal forms have never (to my knowledge) been done quite like this before and the result is a varied and thoroughly enjoyable platform game.

Set in the far future in a different part of the universe, Dr. Muto is a crackpot inventor who has created a machine that will provide a super efficient energy source, allowing planet Midway to break away from the tyrannical corporation Burnitol, who currently supply all their energy. Unfortunately something goes rather horribly wrong and the entire planet is destroyed, with only Dr. Muto's house and garden left intact!! Floating around space on a very small piece of rock, Dr. Muto sets out to build the Genitor 9000, a machine that will reconstruct planet Midway and all its inhabitants. To do this he must ransack the various Burnitol sites on the four remaining planets in the solar system, in order to collect enough raw materials and parts to build his device. An amusing and fun excuse for a bit of platforming fun if ever there was one!

As with any decent platform game nowadays the first level provides a tutorial of the basics whilst also concealing a few secrets to root out. You start in Dr. Muto's lab and must collect some isotopes to restore power before the generator goes critical. Then you must morph into your mouse form in order to get the key to another machine, which has fallen behind the back of a bookcase. This section is one of the first of a few that are in 2D, so the camera is fixed and you are working only in two dimensions - this is good fun and a nice throwback to the good old days for us incurable nostalgics. Once you've got all your equipment back online you can use the Transloader (kind of like a phone booth) to beam yourself to the first planet where your quest for the parts and materials you need begins.

Dr. Muto is out to collect five different types of materials. The most common of these are the isotopes, which are scattered all over the place and there are over 4000 to find throughout the whole game. A lot more rare is Terra, which is some kind of energy that will be used to power the Genitor when it is completed. There are 7 of these to find on every level, each of which can only be found by completing a set objective. Next up is scrap metal, of which there are also 7 to find and they are used to build new inventions that are needed to complete some objectives. Then there is the animal DNA that the doctor must collect in order to create new morph forms for himself. Finally are the machine parts needed to build the Genitron 9000, of which there is one to get on every level. The only other thing you can collect is hearts, 20 of which give you an extra health point.

One of this game's strongest features are the excellent level designs - the different levels on each of the four worlds are pretty huge and this game will take a good 15-20 hours to complete. Each level brings with it new challenges and several areas that are specifically aimed at a particular morph. For example, on the first level there are several huge sections that you must complete as the mouse, which can be pretty tricky in places. These levels are full of ledges to jump across and hazards and enemies to avoid. Fortunately you are not completely defenceless and can use your tail as a deadly whip to smash enemies and crates. You can also eat some enemies and spit them out at walls to destroy them! There are often large areas where you must hit a sequence of switches that activate moving or timer ledges until you reach your final goal. Objectives are very varied and can include sabotaging, repairing or activating Burnitol equipment, stealing items, exploring areas or just negotiating platforms.

This would still be a little run of the mill if it wasn't for the gadgets and morphs available as the game progresses. Doc has hover shoes allowing for a very decent double jump and glide, so he's quite adept at platform jumping. Gadgets he builds can used at certain points in the game and include super jump boots that give you a number of extra high jumps, rocket boots that launch you hundreds of feet into the air, invisibility, invincibility and a couple of powerful weapons amongst others. But the main attraction here is the morphing. Some of the morphs the Doc manages to brew up include a giant gorilla type beast, a spider and a fish. Each beast has strengths and weaknesses and each is uniquely useful. The gorilla is about four times the Doc's size and can climb and swing along certain surfaces. It can also squash enemies by jumping and then sitting on them. The Spiny Docfish can obviously swim and is able to fire exploding spikes as well as spinning into a spiky, high-speed ball (no, I'm not talking about Sonic!) The spider form is particularly cool - it lays exploding eggs, can walk on any surface with cobweb trails on it and spit sticky web either to haul itself over gaps or to snare and swallow enemies. Each morph is great fun to use and makes for very different level designs, meaning that the levels vary both in look and style. Far from being just a gimmick, the mutations are an integral part of the gameplay and a very cool idea.

The other aspect that adds to the strategy, which is very bizarre, is the use of these strange creatures called Gomers, which Dr. Muto can capture using his zapper (which is also used for capturing DNA samples and stunning enemies). He then has 30 seconds to run around with the Gomer and fire it off as a mini whirlwind. Gomers are needed to open certain types of crates and to activate some switches and they are very amusing little creatures. You do feel sorry for the ones that activate switches though as they are electrocuted to keep the switches on!

The graphics in Dr. Muto are pretty good - they're not super detailed, but very stylised in a larger than life way that is almost like a cartoon but in proper 3D. Dr. Muto himself looks brilliantly maniacal and the voice actor does a superb job of bringing the character to life. The scenery and landscapes are very industrial and can feel a little bleak at times, but as you progress there is plenty of variety. Still, because of the industrial settings they're perhaps not as pretty as other platform games, but nevertheless the surroundings effectively create an industrial nightmare of a polluted world. The animation on Dr. Muto is very good, especially the morphing sequences when he changes into his various forms.

One thing that is excellent is the way the world scales up or down to take account of the Doc's new size. When you become a mouse everything seems to grow and the crates that contain hearts and isotopes are now massive. As the gorilla, everything seems a lot smaller and you really dwarf your foes. As a spider it is particularly unusual and cool to watch as you walk up the walls, as the camera keeps you at the bottom of the screen, so the entire level is on its side and then upside down. Watching lava streams flowing upwards and seeing bits of enemy robots fall upwards when you destroy them is a little disorientating. The enemies are okay, but perhaps a little lacking in variety. The ones that you do find are pretty imaginative and comical though, especially the robot cops with a unicycle instead of legs and the little green men in domes with tentacles that patrol the watery depths.

The sound effects are particularly noteworthy with all manner of peculiar sounds accompanying the collection of power-ups, the enemies, Dr. Muto's morphing, his weapons and the sounds his other forms make. The spider noises are particularly comical, when he squeezes out an exploding egg or spits his sticky web string. The voice acting is also very good for the Doc, AL and the various bosses you face. AL is a sentient computer that is Dr. Muto's only friend and ally and his voice and tone sounds suspiciously like HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is a nice touch. AL gives you a heads up on what objectives are to be completed in each section of the level. The music is an unusual ambient techno style, it's actually pretty good but very quiet - I turned the sound effects down to half volume just to get the music to a normal level, but I found it complemented the industrial tone of the game well.

There isn't really much to criticise about this game - the loading times are brief and minimal, the continue points are frequent and the enemies seem easy to kill at first but somehow manage to keep getting you as the levels get tougher. The only downside is occasional frustration with tricky levels where you keep falling to your death, but what platform game doesn't suffer from that problem? I would also say that the stylised look of the graphics is darker in tone than most platform games and in some ways is a little less appealing. Once you're used to it though you'll really appreciate all the imagination and effort that has gone into creating this bizarre universe that Muto lives in. Finally, this is a classic platform game but it's not going to convert anyone, so if you don't like platform games you won't like this. If you are a platform gamer then you really should give this a try as it is very enjoyable once you get into it and very challenging in parts too.

Dr. Muto is a great platformer that, whilst not breaking the mould entirely, combines a unique graphical style with some outstanding level designs that fully utilise the original idea of being able to morph into various animal forms. The end result is a highly playable and enjoyable game that every platformer fan should check out.

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).