The only thing I remember about Mutant Mudds from when I first played it eight years ago is that it was the only game ever to make the stereoscopic 3D feature on the Nintendo 3DS actually look good. Something about the bright, clean pixel art and the way the action jumps back and forth between planes looked really, really nice on the system’s 240p display when you can see each plane clearly. It’s a good gimmick for the 3DS, but I guess that leads us right into both of the problems the game has. The first is that this gimmick is very much just a gimmick, and the game surrounding it is no different or more complex than any of the other NES throwback platformers that flood the market. The second is that unless you’re somehow still looking at getting this on the long-discontinued 3DS, you’re not even going to get that gimmick – just 240p pixel art upscaled onto your massive TV and an overall disappointing experience.
It’s not one of those retro-styled platformers that are just modern games with a low-resolution skin and a bunch of cheeky references. It very much plays like a game from the late ‘80s, with the slow movement and sticky, unreliable jumps that everybody thought was okay back then but quietly erased from their nostalgia banks at some point since. Really, if you’re going for the 3DS version you’re just going to get a clunky, outdated game with a cool gimmick to sell you the system you already bought, and if you’re going for any of the other versions you’re just skipping the cool gimmick.
Dylan's Morsels 