Space Otter Charlie sounds about as adorable as it really is. Humans have trashed the planet to the point of being uninhabitable, so they all blasted off to the stars leaving behind a group of highly skilled and motivated otters. Using their keen engineering skills they gather just enough spare rocket parts to blast themselves into space in search of their own new world. What better setup for 8-10 hours of quality platform, puzzle, space-shooting exploration.
You’ll be playing as Charlie, a cute otter in a spacesuit with a jetpack and magnetic boots. You’ll explore the maze-like levels of space stations, space ships, and other futuristic locations in search of all sorts of collectibles, some of which can be used to upgrade your weapons and other gear at various Build Bot locations. The core gameplay element is that your exploration takes place entirely in zero-g, which means learning a whole new mode of travel. You can tap your jetpack to launch yourself in any unobstructed direction and you will fly to that spot and stick to the wall thanks to your magnet boots. You can also maneuver in mid-flight by holding down the booster button to slow or steer Charlie in other directions. It’s definitely a skill to master but it should only take a few levels to do so.
Aside from exploring for critical parts and resources Charlie will eventually get caught up in combat with various space critters, enemy robots, and some impressively creative boss battles. Charlie has a nice assortment of weapons that he collects over time and can upgrade them by collecting various resources left floating around after things have been disintegrated, much like the bolts in the Ratchet and Clank game. There are some fun and useful variations of the standard ray gun including one weapon that can bounce shots off of certain wall surfaces, useful to shoot buttons and enemies not in your line of sight.
One of the interesting things about combat is that the game realistically repels you in the opposite direction when firing a weapon and not magnetically attacked to a wall. This is even used in solving some puzzles that require you to stick to a metal box then propel that box to a certain location by firing in the opposite direction. There are all sorts of puzzles in Space Otter Charlie including the standard key collection to get past locked doors. There are teleport tubes to transport around the level and there is always a map collectible that will reveal the layout of the current level and where you have explored. There are also collectible Otter Facts that are fun and even educational.
Between missions you hang out with your crew members to setup your next mission and unlock a long list of Otter survivors that you can visit in the cargo area and have amusing conversations. When you’re ready to head back out you get a nice map screen with all of your primary and optional locations. Primary locations advance the story while optional quests will earn you resources to boost Charlie’s abilities to make the game easier down the road. When you do die you always spawn at a nearby checkpoint, so you never have to replay too much of any level.
Technically, the game is marvelous and enhanced for the Xbox One X; I was playing on a Series X so not much more improvement aside from faster load times. The story panel cutscenes were gorgeous and the in-game graphics are colorful, nicely detailed, and designed so things don’t get cluttered when a hundred things are moving about the screen. There are all sorts of flashy special effects specific to each weapon and the enemy designs are super-creative and offer their own challenges in how to approach them in combat. The audio package is a mix of fun sound effects and exciting background music that fuels the gameplay, which can get intense at times.
I had a blast playing Space Otter Charlie. It’s a fantastic platformer with serious retro roots that will make this not only fun for kids but parents and older gamers as well. There is some serious adaptive skill required to finish the game, but things never get impossibly hard. Everyone is guaranteed to have a lot of fun saving the Otter species and maybe learning some cool Otter facts along the way.
