Antipole Review: Upside Down Fun

Looking for a platformer with innovative gravity controls? Antipole for Xbox Live Arcade might just be the indie game you were looking for. You have your normal jump and shooter action here, but what separates this platformer from others is the ability to invert gravity on the fly. This makes for a fun game with good twists and turns to it.

The ability to inverse gravity is a fun one. The concept is well executed here. You start with limited control of how long you can keep gravity inverted. But by the end of the game your control of the gravity is greatly increased. Throughout the game, you will have to traverse through passage ways that will require your timing on how long to stay afloat. This will get challenging in a good way as you progress within the game.

As you progress through the game, unique robots will try to stop you – even ones who can reverse gravity themselves. So be sure to use your gravity gun wisely. With a total of 4 main bosses, Antipole will give you plenty of challenge over the course of the game. Expect the main campaign to last you around a hour. Even with the main game over, there is a decent amount to do with collecting challenge coins and completing challenges.

The game has a nice military complex 2D look to it. It doesn’t change much as you go through the game. But what’s there does look nice and crisp. Expect the sounds and music to be nice as well. There is an issue with background music as you end the next area though. Sometimes the music will stop for a few seconds and then pick back up. While not a major issue, this does kill the mood a bit.

If there is one thing wrong with this game, it is being knocked back a few paces when damaged. This may sound like a unfair assessment of the game, but unfortunately you are not given enough invincible protection to last you before getting hit again. A lot of times you will be knocked back into spikes leading your character to lose more hearts. You will end up dying a few times while learning to react properly before finishing the level. While annoying, this is not a deal breaker. If you have some patience, you can learn to overlook this problem and enjoy the game.

In the end, I recommend this game. This is a fun little game, and at only $1 on Xbox Live Arcade, it is worth the asking price. The ability to inverse gravity is a great one. The issue with being knocked back when damaged is annoying, but is not annoying enough to keep you from enjoying the game.

Rating: 7.5/10