World Gone Sour review

When asked to review a game, one generally doesn’t assume that it is going to be on a popular cinema candy like Sour Patch Kids. World Gone Sour is a game that is centered around just that, a Sour Patch Kid making its way to its life long goal – to be eaten. The storyline is shown to you between levels in a short cinematic, and they even show you who the boss is going to be during one of the initial cinematics! Surprisingly enough I still very much enjoyed this game.

World Gone Sour is a pleasant surprise when considering that it is a five hour advertisement for Sour Patch Kids. Overall the game ii quite enjoyable. The mechanics are similar to LittleBigPlanet,  or any other platformer and they're fairly simple, although, they sometimes require a few ‘do-overs’ to get a well placed double-jump.

The long loading times unfortunately brought the game down just a bit for me. They are just lengthy enough for you to get up, grab snacks – check the fridge twice, and return to your comfortable playing position before the screen loads. You can view this as a bad thing or a good thing, depending on whether you like snacks.

The graphics in World Gone Sour are detailed enough to be reasonably believable and are able to pull you into twisted candy world. Though they aren’t phenomenal they are pretty decent for a $5 downloadable game.The music can be quite repetitive with a short intermission from Method Man in a small level but otherwise you’ll be able to hum the tune line by line for hours after the game.

The level design is quite entertaining, going from a garbage can out into the scary big world of a theater. Everything is proportionate to the size of a Sour Patch Kid. Because of your size in the game, anything can be your enemy, even other Sour Patch Kids. A large part of the environment however is made up of a lot of boxes and gum. The gum-wads are a near constant theme throughout each level, you get stuck in them and you have to fight gum-wad monsters that look scarier upon close inspection.

On your travels throughout the giant cinema you come across other Sour Patch Kids, these friends come in handy every level. You can use them to grow larger or smaller depending on what the level has in store for you. In order to progress through certain areas or to be able to grab onto trophies you use your little friends as sacrifices. You usually can retrieve the little guys…unless they meet an unfortunate end on a few spikes. Don’t worry, no Sour Patch Kids were harmed during the making of this game.

The game has some unexpected humor to it, which is largely thanks to the narrator. Although he’s there to help you out throughout the game, he often makes remarks that aren’t appropriate and can insinuate many things. One of the best lines has to be ‘that looks like something I found in your mothers drawer.’ Any game that brings your mother into it is good in my books. Definitely.

Overall, World Gone Sour echoes LittleBigPlanet with its drop in co-op and some similar mechanics, without any of the level building. It has the ability to draw you in and entertain you no matter who you are. Running through levels as a Sour Patch Kid, sacrificing your little Sour Patch Kid friends for the greater good…I mean, how much better can it get? The game is available to download on the XBLA and PSN for 400 MSP and $5 respectively. I would recommend it for those who enjoy side scrolling, eerie fun.

[Reviewed on Xbox 360]