Doctor Muto

Doctor Muto Description

You don't normally have to travel far in your average 3D platform adventure before you come across a mad scientist, crazy inventor or something similar. Whether it's the guy who's trying to take over the world or perhaps merely the provider of power-ups/gadgets, more often than not there'll be some character bearing more than a passing resemblance to Doc Brown from Back to the Future (2.21 gigawatts!!!). This latest platformer from Midway goes one step further, casting the overly-stereotyped figure as the protagonist, on a quest to clean up a certain mess he's gotten himself into. And what a mess it is. As the story has it, Muto's latest experiment has gone slightly wrong, resulting in the destruction of his home planet. All that remains is a bit of rock with his laboratory sitting rather precariously on top. His solution? Rebuild his destroyed world by harvesting resources from other nearby planets - a task that requires Muto's unique and ingenious morphing technology. Which brings us rather conveniently to the game's central theme. In order to progress through the game, players must combine DNA from living organisms into creatures that they can morph into. For example, the early stages see Dr Muto morph into a mouse, thus enabling him to access the smaller areas of the levels. In total there are six different creatures available, also including the likes of an alien spider and a hulking gorilla - each in possession of their own unique abilities, and each essential to the completion of the game's many tasks. As Dr. Muto, players forge through 22 vast levels on four distinct planetscapes: from the junkyard world of Totltec, to the half-drowned water world of Aquem, through the smog-choked skies of Flotos, and finally, to the forbidden mines of Mazon. Throughout each world there are more than a dozen different enemy types to overcome, including cybernetically modified robo-dogs, rent-a-cops and heavily armed security druids. As you may expect, each of the worlds concludes with a chief boss confrontation, before our hero finally comes face to face with yet another mad scientist type, his arch-enemy the evil Professor Burnitall.