Love can be tough. Think back to your teenage years, and you can probably think of half a dozen or so episodes of unrequited love, rejection and the smouldering remains of failed relationships. Trying out your first name with their last name in the back of your Maths exercise book, secretly staking out their dinner time footie matches with your girl friends and adding IDEMT to your lovelorn wall carvings - and lets not forget the obligatory fortune telling rubbers that were clearly a way more reliable method of finding out if your crush feels the same rather than, you know, asking them. As much as we'd not like to admit it, we've all been there.
Such is the story for the cutesy downloadable multiplayer game coming to the Wii U this autumn, Rakoo & Friends. Here, the sweet Rakoo has his heart set on a particular lady raccoon, and is so blinded by love his brain turns to mush as he runs after her. For miles and miles he dashes along with but one thing on his mind - to win his true love over with a flower and an adorably goofy grin. Now that's dedication for you! But so one-track is his desire that the daft thing doesn't even bother watching where he's running, and it's up to you to guide him through perilous level after perilous level, with the help of a tribe of colourful animal/plant/random object friends.
I got that 'coon a flower. 'Coons love flowers.
Adapted from its original iPhone/Android version and now with Wii U-specific multiplayer, we couldn't help being drawn to it's decidedly brightly coloured stand at last week's gamescom event in Germany, where we sat down with the developers to play a few rounds of the charming little pick-up-and-play title. Letting up to five people play together, one guiding the lovestruck Rakoo with the GamePad and the others controlling his helpful companions using Wii Remotes, it's the perfect game to play in short bursts with friends on the sofa, as you work together to get Rakoo to his lady friend.
Feeling more than a little bit like one of those auto-scrolling levels on the Mario games - only without any jumping - all of the characters in Rakoo & Friends constantly run from left to right through each of the sixty plus stages, dodging rocks, bottomless pits and all kinds of eccentric enemies, from bright purple hedgehogs, flamingos in drag and gormless looking dragons to name but a few, whilst collecting the coloured flowers scattered on the ground to charge up each character's special moves. Rakoo, being the hopeless romantic that he is, simply has to move up, down, backwards and forwards and do his best to dodge all the obstacles - each one you hit will knock a chunk off your health, and when that hits zero, poor Rakoo is (presumably) too heartbroken to continue, and you have to start over.
But fortunately, Rakoo's group of four pets have got his furry little back, and each has their own unique power to help Rakoo on his journey. An angry looking owl, the affectionately named Screamy, has enough lung power to let out a rock-and-enemy-shattering squawk, affecting everything in a small radius around him, while a smirking seed-copter-thing (Pakoo) prefers to fire projectiles at those bad guys and obstacles a bit further afield. Our personal favourite, a rather disgruntled looking pufferfish called Boolby likes to take the fight to the enemies instead, charging at them when fully inflated for a pretty devastating ramming attack.
As you play, you'll also unlock hats to customise Rakoo!
However, the final character, Loovy the heart is a little bit different. Essentially a support character for the titular Rakoo, he needs to collect enough of the flowers from the floor to fully fill his attack bar, at which point he can heal one heart of Rakoo's health. Of course, getting to the point you can actually use your move is easier said than done, as with a limited amount of flowers to go around, and four friends vying for them (not to mention the fact the move requires you to hover next to Rakoo for a short time while it works, without crashing into anything), means it's a role perhaps best left to the more competent players. Or the tightest-knit of teams who can all lend a hand in defending Rakoo and the heart while they heal.
But Rakoo isn't quite a totally useless love-obsessed lump. Every so often you'll run into a power up for the little guy, each of which gives him some rather rad powers that put his allies to shame. From a giant wolf-ish mount you can ride on that lets you crash through any and every obstacle, to a flaming chilli that makes Rakoo run like the clappers and leave a fiery trail in his wake, to a pair of vampire bat-like wings to glide over gaps, they help keep things interesting for the GamePad player. Also mixing things up are 'boss' stages, where Rakoo and crew end up being chased by a rather angry (but still decidedly cute) animal, from spiders to dragons and everything in between. And, for added replay value, each stage has three hidden collectable medals to find along the way.
The guys behind Rakoo, Old Skull Games, have a history in both games and animation - with the latter being especially obvious when you look at Rakoo. With some seriously pretty animated cutscenes and a bright and colourful art style, Rakoo & Friends looks like it could be straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon. And with it's suitably wacky and cutesy premise, coupled with some winning multiplayer fun, it'll definitely be one to keep an eye on when it hits the Wii U eShop later this year, at a purse-friendly 9 Euros. As for what that is in proper money, we're not sure yet - but with current exchange rates it works out at about £6.43.
