There are plenty of madcap, fast-paced platformers available on mobile. Some of them focus on small challenges, some of them widen out their scope to give you something heftier to chew on. Super Mombo Quest tries to fit into both of those camps, and it makes a pretty good fist of it.
The game sees you playing a weird, purple monster with a big sloppy tongue. You can jump, double jump, wall-climb and dash. You bounce on critters to kill them and there are plenty of shiny things to collect.
The game has a metroidvania twist to it – large levels where you’ll need to backtrack, teleport around and discover secrets, but layers smaller challenges on top. Every new screen there are little achievements to unlock – usually collecting all the gems and performing what’s called a Mombo Combo.
This involves killing everything in a set time, bouncing quickly to keep a combo bar full and collecting gems to top it up between attacks. It adds a neat, frantic thrill to the experience, but it can sometimes be a little frustrating when the touchscreen controls let you down.
Completing the different challenges gets you coins, and you can spend those on unlocking gates to get deeper into the game. There are teleport points to use at shortcuts too. Head back to your village base and you can spend your gems on a variety of upgrades.
Everything here looks lovely, and for the most part the platforming is spot on. The controls can be a little bit sticky, as we mentioned above, but when they work there’s a brilliant flow to Super Mombo Quest that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Balancing two different styles of platforming can be a challenge, but Super Mombo Quest pulls it off with aplomb, and no small measure of charm. This is a great game, and you owe it to yourself to give it a go.
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