You may remember the team at Open Emotion; they are the ones that brought us the bonkers and extremely addictive Mad Blocker Alpha. Well now they are back with their latest game, Revoltin’ Youth.

The story is a simple one. The evil ‘Big-Wig’ has covered the character’s town in crummy marketing gibberish. It’s up to you to control the three main characters; Badger, Cole and Kamiko, through 50 levels of side scrolling “headache inducing” puzzles and take him down. The youths may be revolting, but let’s hope the game is up to scratch.

[boxout]The first thing that strikes you about Revoltin’ Youth is the art style. If you take a peak back at Open Emotion’s previous two titles, Mad Blocker Alpha and Ninjamurai, you can quite easily tell they are from the same developer as they both have a very similar feel about them.

Not so with Revoltin’ Youth. It is extremely bright, with bold, flat colours and chunky character models dominating the screen. It’s clear they are going for a pixel-art look, and it’s certainly worked.

An additional thumbs up must be given to the simply fantastic audio. With chiptune tracks from George & Jonathan, Sabrepulse and 8Bitlegend, this is one game that almost demands that you listen through a pair of decent headphones with the bass turned up a notch (or ten).

So we know it looks nice, and sounds great, but what about the gameplay? Well, Revoltin’ Youth is spread over 50 levels, with the ‘simple’ aim of getting from point A to point B. Of course, it’s not really that simple as standing in your way is a multitude of puzzles and obstacles.

http://youtu.be/McOGcmEaL6E

This is where the three main characters come in, as you must utilise and combine their unique abilities to be able to progress. Once you find them, all three will be on-screen at once, and you can flit between them by pressing the shoulder buttons. Badger (who looks scarily like Beat from Jet Set Radio) can jump reasonably high, spray graffiti at enemies (which will temporarily disable them), access terminals to start up moving platforms and can use a glider at certain locations.

Cole is your typical strong man, and you’ll be using him to move objects (such as Companion Cubes!) and punch out enemies. His weak point is the fact that he really can’t jump; in fact when you try it the whole process just makes him look like he’s soiled himself, as he does a tiny, surprised looking hop on the spot. Finally, Kamiko is your speedy character, who can jump high, climb green netting and run through floor spikes.

The puzzles, for the most part, are well designed, increasing in difficulty as you progress and requiring you to use your entire team. Saying that, one of the main problems is that sometimes your goal is unclear, meaning you’ll be walking backwards and forwards for a while wondering just what on earth you’re missing as a random switch has blended into the scenery.

The controls, too, are sometimes lacking when it comes to responsiveness. Certain actions, such as Badger’s graffiti attack, seem to have a slight lag to them, meaning that you have to try and plan ahead and press the button a second before you would normally need to. The jumping can also be a bit hit and miss, and there was one section where I managed to vault over a laser barrier, but when I had to repeat the section (yes, I died further on) Badger just kept falling into the lasers, despite me doing the exact same thing as before.

Despite these minor annoyances, you’ll still find yourself coming back and having one more go. You learn the little idiosyncrasies of the control scheme, and the logic behind the puzzles, and you’ll adapt to them. Yes, you will have a few frustrating deaths that are beyond your control, but the puzzle design, audio, and overall presentation are good enough to draw you back in.

Pros

• Looks great.
• Fantastic soundtrack.
• Well design puzzles.
• Good use of the three characters.

Cons

• Some unresponsive controls at times.
• Objectives are sometimes too obscure.

Hats off to Open Emotion. They have managed to produce a game that looks and sounds great, and boasts some great levels; all for half the price of a pint down your local. Tighter controls would have seen a higher mark, but even as it stands Revoltin’ Youth deserves your attention.

Score: 7/10