Mr Coo: El Laberinto Esférico
Barcelona's Nacho Rodríguez puts his award winning flash animated character, Mr. Coo, in his first game, an adventure puzzler called Mr. Coo: El Laberinto Esférico ("The Spherical Labyrinth").
Rodríguez has a fun animated style like Pink Panther meets Ren and Stimpy, and a surreal imagination along the lines of Bill Plimpton with a bit of Salvador Dali.
The game starts out in an endless labyrinth, where you start the moment Mr. Coo falls to his death—but then he has a dream that turns into a "choose your own" path style of point-and-click adventure. You have several paths you can take, and each path has several different versions you can experience depending on a choice you made earlier. There's a fish eating game, a monster on a mountain puzzle, and a few more endings. You usually wind up back where you started, and must repeat again. And so the game goes, a bit in circles, but finding a new path, puzzle, or a new ending is part of the fun.
Analysis: Rodríguez uses a combination of animation and comic book conventions, like split-screen panels, to direct you to the next step. Very stylish and fun, the comic stills mixed with the animation is a nice touch. Fun, quirky puzzles, a surreal premise and a fantastic score by Rodríguez and Fernando dg Saburit make this game enjoyable to play.
I played the first couple rounds in Spanish before I realized you can choose English on the main title screen, and thought it added a little mystery not knowing everything being said. Having to repeat parts didn't bother me, although I would have liked to have an additional payoff or two. I look forward to another installment of this surrealistic adventure game.
Play Mr Coo: El Laberinto Esférico
Update (July 30, 2008): Nacho just informed me of a new update to the game that is now online. Included in this update:Ok, there's a new user-friendlier version online:
Cheers, Nacho
- You only have to watch the first scenes twice, from the 3rd time you die you get a shortcut version.
- Also if you enter any correct password, you get this shortcut path.
- At the fish game you have now 5 lives, and it only needs to be won once.
- Any password that has this path finished frees you from playing the fish game again.
- And some other minor changes.
Walkthrough Guide
(Please allow page to fully load for spoiler tags to be functional.)
Hokay, so i'm going to try to make a walkthrough. it's going to be like imbedded spoilers, cause nobody has explained how to do the list thing, that i've seen.
NOTE: Any time the scenes stop changing, click. I'm not going to write this in, so just remember it. Click to continue.
NOTE 2: Once you've beaten a path, click play again. You must complete all paths to get the real ending.
You start with 4 choices. The clock, the jar of green stuff, the box, or the empty panel.
Empty Panel:
You run off, and the three items get mad that you don't want to use them, so they kill you. DEAD
Everything else:
When the scene next stops, you have three choices. The stone face, the door, or the manhole thing.
Stone Face:
There's a small stone panel on the edge outside the door that you can click. Click it, it spins around, the face turns, opens, and you run inside. You are now on top of the place, and you don't have many options.
Click the red guy once, and he just turns and looks mad at you. Same if you click the floating rocks. Click him again, though, and he throws a rock at your face. Jerk. Now you have 3 options, which don't end with you dying. Click the rock first, so you pick it up.
Now, if you click the red guy, he'll catch the rock and launch it back. Click the floating bits of ground and you throw it off and lose it and be sad. Click the cloud above the red guy, and it becomes a rain cloud and makes the guy run off behind the rock with an umbrella. Now you can click the floating bits of ground and continue.
Now whichever item you clicked will make a difference.
You find a genie in a lamp who pops out. Now, if you picked the...
Jar of green stuff:
He picks you up and tosses you into a pot. Go back to the bit on the Manhole, for instructions.
Box:
The genie reaches down, twists the thing, and JACK IN THE BOX ATTACK! The genie gets understandably mad, and slices you. DEAD
Clock:
The alarm clock goes off and wakes up the guy. You end up falling out of a big circle thing and can play again. WIN. Click to play again, and choose a different path.
Door:
Click on the small metal tube thing down at the bottom of the screen next to you. It goes in the hole and opens the door.
Now you have to beat the fishy game. Just eat all fishes smaller than you. This took me like 5 tries, so just keep going at it. Now when the red fish shows up, click, and it eats you.
Now whichever item you picked makes a difference.
Clock:
The clock goes off, and the whole fish starts shaking. It goes crazy and spits you out onto the mountain. See the section on the Stone Face for instructions.
Jar:
You open the jar, and a shark notices the smell, and eats the fish, and you inside it. DEAD
Box:
The box opens and makes the fish into a submarine. You make your way to a bright hole, and the guy hops out of the hole, out of the circle thing, and you can play again. WIN. Click play again and choose a different path.
Manhole:
Click the tree nearest the face to make it sneeze the manhole up and away. You hop in.
You now are in a pot in some dungeon, and some weird cook guy is tossing ingredients into your pot.
Click the tongs on the guy's side when he's bending over at your right. You'll grab them and hide them. When the cook isn't to your right, click the bottle of acid above you. You grab it with the tongs and bring it down.
Now if you click the cook, you pour the acid on him and he gets mad, putting the lid on the pot and killing you. DEAD. Click the lid instead, so it gets all swiss cheesy. The cook puts the lid on, and you escape as steam, or a ghost. You decide.
Now it's differences time.
You end up in a graveyard, and use whichever item you picked.
Clock:
You reach into your ghostly pocket, and pull out an hourglass. The Grim Reaper takes the hourglass once it's empty, and swipes you with his scythe. DEAD
Box:
It opens up and shows some messed up roulette. It almost lands on the picture of the guy, but moves to the fish. You end up in the fishy game. Go to the Door section for instructions.
Jar:
You open the jar and drink its contents. You turn back into a person and walk off, only to fall into a grave. DEAD? Nope. WIN! You fall out of the ball and you can play again. Click to play again.
Now, if you've beaten these three paths, the end scene happens when you finish the last one.
Your other two selves that made it out show up. One gets huge feet, one a huge head, and one a huge torso. They look up, and the ball thing starts cracking. It turns out it was an egg! A chicken egg! Of monstrous proportions, as the screen-rattling "tweet" of the chick proves. The three guys hop on each other and combine to make a giant guy. Bonus points to the developer for Power Rangers reference. Then your giant Morphazoid runs off, and fights the chicken! Not. I was disappointed. It jumps onto the chicken and rides off. THE END
Once you've beaten the game, the "Secreto" panel turns and reveals a
Scene Select, so you can watch all of those great moments over again. You choose the item, then the path, and it shows you what happens. You then continue from there, if it's a DEAD or "jump to other path" path.
Woo that was interesting. Everybody is happy in the end though.
Posted by: waycooler
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July 28, 2008 8:42 PM