Tornado Review

Not content with bringing SNK Playmore franchises like Metal Slug and King of Fighters to the West, Ignition Entertainment is about to launch another to the UK market in the form of Tornado, from Korean outfit, Skonec.  Following the adventures of a small group of Cosmic Cleaners tasked with rescuing the contents of the Earth from 'The Prince', a shadowy character who has sucked the surface of the planet clean with his black hole machine, Tornado is essentially in the same vein as Namco Bandai's acclaimed Katamari franchise.  But will Tornado suck the wind from the sails of Katamari, or is it nothing more than a clone with some DS functionality thrown in for good measure?

TVG took Tornado for a spin, and found a game that perhaps isn't as unassuming as it should be...

A Load Of Wind.
Tornadoes may be the scourge of the US prairies, but it seems that we've been mistaken about their real nature.  Like giant vacuum cleaners, it turns out that they clean all the rubbish from a planet's surface, and that they're actually controlled by a small band of cuddly creatures that wouldn't look out of place on a cereal box...in fact, one does look suspiciously like Tony the Tiger. Which is just Grrrrrrrrrrreat!  Ahem.  Anyway, these intergalactic Aggie & Kims turn into Earth's would be saviours when 'The Prince' uses a black hole to suck the surface of the planet of its contents.

Harnessing the power of a tornado, graded into several categories of strength, players have to reclaim everything from humans to trees to world landmarks across ten environments.  Yes, it really does sound like the Prince of All the Cosmos has some competition.  Using the DS stylus in a circular motion to build up the size of the tornado, players have several objectives to complete during the course of the game, though searching for a certain number of objects or a long lost anthropomorphic buddy isn't as compelling as the more established Katamari.

Throw in a smattering of special moves such as the dash or lightning attack abilities,  and Tornado has got a little more depth in what the little beings can do, but ultimately gameplay just boils down to clearing up the 'clutter' of civilization.  Thankfully, there's a little more to Tornado than just travelling across the globe finding pieces of your tornado machine or missing friends.  More Katamari-like is the Bonus Mode, where players have to clean up a certain percentage of the location within a strict time limit.  A far more engaging affair thanks to its simplicity, and much more fun than the game's actual campaign, the Bonus Mode is what more gamers will undoubtedly play if they part with some cold cash for the game.  It does pose quite a challenge however, sometimes to the point of pushing beyond the fun/frustration line, leading to us question who Tornado is aimed at with such a potent difficulty level.

Out Of Puff.
There is one very serious issue to be had with Tornado however, and that's the inclusion of Iraq as a location for one of the stages.  As our cuddly, kiddie-friendly characters continue on their journey, they head to the war-torn country in a bid to find eight pieces of special technology.  At first, the use of Iraq as a mission is merely strange – and then come the tanks, armed-checkpoints, undetonated scud missiles, and even Baghdad's Shaheed martyr memorial, all of which beg the question: what sort of game is this?  Positively offensive, the Iraq level is all the more bizarre given the game's 7+ age rating.  Is this supposed to be a statement on the lengthy war, an allegory for the Western Coalition's ineffectiveness in 'cleaning up' the situation in Iraq?

Perhaps Tornado isn't for kids; perhaps it's for a more mature adult audience?  After all, I didn't come across any references to the melting of the ice caps on MotorStorm, or the extinction of the mountain gorilla in Animal Crossing.  The Iraq level is off-putting; it's difficult to move past its inexcusable inclusion in what should be a family-friendly title.