7.6 /10 1 Votes7.6
2.5/5 GamesRadar Series Badland Publisher Frogmind | 4.5/5 Google Play 9/10 Destructoid! Initial release date 4 April 2013 Developer Frogmind | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date(s) 4 April 2013iOSWW: 4 April 2013AndroidWW: 29 November 2013Windows PhoneWW: 3 June 2014BlackBerry 10WW: 18 February 2015PS3, PS4, PS VitaNA: 26 May 2015EU: 28 May 2015Windows, OS X, LinuxWW: 28 May 2015Xbox OneWW: 29 May 2015Wii UWW: 30 July 2015 Awards Satellite Award for Best Outstanding Mobile Game Similar Badland 2, Limbo, Leo's Fortune, Monument Valley, Alto's Adventure | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Badland (stylized BADLAND) is a mobile video game developed by Frogmind Games and released on the iOS and Android platforms. It was released on Windows Phone 8 in June 2014. There is also a Game of the Year Edition that was released in May 2015 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One, Wii U and Steam for Linux, Microsoft Windows and OS X. In December 2015, its sequel named Badland 2 was released on iOS.
Contents
Gameplay
The player flies around a little black creature named Clony through the woods of the game. Beginning in Day 1, the game progresses through four stages which consist of Dawn, Noon, Dusk, and Night, each with a separate color scheme and new theme of traps. As the player goes through Day 1, egg shaped machines begin to come out of the water of the background. Heading into night, the machines begin to turn on and the game becomes harder as the machines become part of the dangers of the forest. Eventually the character succeeds in disabling the machines and the machines become dormant once again, until Day 2 begins it all over. Most of Day 2 is similar in plot structure, but smaller octopus-like machines begin to make themselves known and the animals in the forest begin to disappear. The last level includes saving a rabbit that was hanging by its foot and eventually coming to fly in front of a giant eye of one of the machines, leaving a cliffhanger into possible future updates. Also included in the game are possible in-app purchases that continue the story with some of Clony's friends, including ones nicknamed Snorf and Fury, featured in their own level packs. In early 2014, level pack Doomsday was released, featuring Fury and his escape from the machine infested woods. Also included is the Daydream level pack in which Snorf escapes finding the magic of the forest makes the woods not all as it seems to be. In 2015 a new multiplayer feature was released witch allowed up to 4 players to play at the same time.
Reception
The game won Apple Inc.'s 2013 iPad Game of the Year award. It also won the Grand Prix award in the 9th annual International Mobile Gaming Awards. The game has a Metacritic score of 85% based on 20 critic reviews.