So…what’s the deal with this Dr. Muto fella? Is he meant to be delightful? Gross? Ironic? Is the fact that he’s unappealing what’s supposed to make him appealing? Just as Muto’s role in the mascot universe is vague and nebulous, so are the goals in his mostly generic Mario-modeled 3D platformer. This is a decently constructed game that suffers from item glut, with too many icons too collect and not enough distinction made between what they do and why exactly you’d want them. Repetitive looking, too-big-for-their-own-good areas with none-too-helpful maps don’t help, either; you’ll spend a lot of time just sorta wandering, looking at your daunting list of missions and gadgets, wondering what exactly you’re supposed to do next. The whole game design feels vague and mushy. Still, some goodness has come out of the lab—many of Muto’s morphs are creative (in both form and function), the controls and camera are pretty tight, and the game benefits from its absurd, off-color (and often juvenile) sense of humor. The sound effects are unique, too, with odd noises that would make some of history’s greatest black-and-white mad scientists proud. Ultimately, however, Muto’s a slave to the laws and formulas of 3D platformer science—even if it doesn’t necessarily know how to solidly apply them.
