Review of Mutant Mudds Deluxe

Mutant Mudds was one of those indie games I came across quite frequently but never picked up for no reason. I finally did and as expected, I did enjoy the game. It's a slow-paced 2D collectathon platformer with an emphasis on multiple layers to move between. Mutant Mudds control solid overall, though the slow-paced isn't an understatement as the main character moves at a snail's pace. In the game's defence, the stages are built around his physics so the game controls perfectly fine in conjunction with the stage design. Max is armed with a water gun to take out enemies in front of him, and a booster to have him hover for a bit or shoot high up in the air. I do wish the water gun was a bit more versatile like having a charge-up attack but yet again, the enemies are designed around this gun pretty well. Both the booster and water gun can be upgraded with the usage of the collectable shiny diamonds you find in every stage. You can only equip one upgrade at a time to discover alternate exits in stages with a slightly higher difficulty. Every stage has two exits with a visual theme going back to earlier handhelds such as the Gameboy and -shudders- the Virtual Boy, which was a nice surprise. There are a total of 20 levels, each housing two exits which require your mastery of that stage's obstacles. The game is not necessarily hard, at least not in my opinion. Overall it was a fun game to complete and pretty short as well, but unfortunately completion is not rewarded very well. After you beat the game you unlock additional challenges being the second of the alternate exits in every stage, and there's also a ''Ghost world'' which are the same stages but slightly more difficult. Beating both and getting all collectables in game does not reward you with anything but achievements. It's slightly disappointing to see a game that has an emphasis on completion having a really lacklustre reward for you waiting at the end. I'm also slightly disappointed with there being no bosses in the game whatsoever despite facing a single nemesis colony. Regardless, Mutant Mudds is a fun platformer that you can delve a few hours into.