Ancients of Ooga by NinjaBee is the spiritual successor to Cloning Clyde. Like Clyde, Ancients is a platformer where you can switch between characters at will to solve puzzles. Ancients is a good game that improves on Clyde’s concept but has some missteps along the way that keep it from being spectacular.

Let’s get the bad out of the way, Ancient’s setting and graphics are not as appealing as Clyde’s. You control the Ooganis on their quest to become free from the Boolis. The crazy Ooganis were dumb enough to get addicted to slugs and imprisoned by the lumbering Boolis. The story is straight forward enough, but the witty and humorous script make the game a lot more enjoyable. The Ooganis themselves are a little too ADHD for me; I much prefer Clyde’s stupidity to the wackiness of the Ooganis.

In my opinion, Ancients biggest mistake is its art direction. Clyde’s Claymation graphics are much more charming than the polygons found in Ancients. While Ancients certainly offers a wider variety of environments and superior animation, I found the polygonal graphics lacking compared to other XBLA titles.

Let’s move onto the good. Ancient’s presentation is top notch. The story sequences are great and the game’s writing and voice acting will make you smile and chuckle. The gameplay is a vast improvement compared to Clyde. The basic mechanics of the game are the same, but there are more diverse level objectives in Ancients. Each tribe of Ooganis has their own special abilities which can be upgraded by shamans. These powers help the diversity of puzzles and keep the game fresh as you move from tribe to tribe. Another small game design improvement is the ‘inventory’ system. Ooganis have strong stomachs and you’re able to carry an infinite number of objects (and even other Ooganis) in your belly. When you need an item, just puke them up with the press of a button. The premise is childish and gross, but it actually makes all the fetching in Ancients a lot less tedious.

Ancients of Ooga is a good quality game at a fair price. The story is well put together and worth playing through and while the game seems geared more towards kids with some of its over-the-top wackiness and easy puzzles, it’s still a solid puzzle platformer. Ancients is not my favorite NinjaBee game, but it is a solid entry into their already solid portfolio.