Note: Backtrack articles only include our ‘fun level’ factor while playing an old game. It is not a review, and is meant to be similar to a person-to-person conversation. These articles may contain spoilers. You’ve been warned.
From the second I saw this game I was 100% interested. Give me a good price and it’s mine! Well, that good price came along and it became mine, digitally. Principle, become a huge tornado and destroy everything in your path. The coolest part about it is you, the tornado, a little tornado guy, so the tornado is a character and isn’t just a bunch of wind that started because of crazy weather patterns.
Gameplay
There’s an evil force taking over the land and they’ve captured all of the Fire Flyers. Fire Flyers can’t fend for themselves so it is up to you to rescue them. They’ve been stashed in buildings, cars, trees, bushes, anywhere and everywhere. As you tornadically (← making up words) destroy items in the world, these little guys are freed. When you free them, you collect them. Collecting has two effects.
1) You need X amount of Fire Flyers to finish the level. Don’t get X amount, then the exit is not available.
2) You can capture them in your tornado and suck them up for a boost. These boosts are essential to finishing a level. They give your tornado the extra strength you need to get through a bigger object when you haven’t fully grown.
There were a few levels I had to repeat because I didn’t get enough Fire Flyers at the right times.
Replay Value
Being a tornado and collecting Fire Flyers can become redundant. Luckily, there’s a couple gameplay enhancements to mix up the formula.
Collectibles
Rock Guys
After a few levels into the story, you’ll meet some rock characters. They’re a family (or something along those lines), and they’re lost. There’s a few rock guys in every level. The first Rock Guy you meet gives you the power to do a ‘Stone Stomp’. If you stomp on his friends and family three times, it wakes them up and you’ve freed them. Although if you grow too large, Rock Guys can get sucked up and they can no longer be freed.
Orb Guys
Like the Rock Guys, there’s some Orb Guys. Orb Guys are usually stuck in a bubble on a river. You can free them by busting the bubble, but like the Rock Guys, get too big and you’ll suck them up.
Bosses
First, you have to generate enough wind to face the boss. Generating wind becomes a racing mini-game where you go through rings. The races are pretty easy. Achievements are attainable for not only flawlessly completing a race, but also doing badly. Of course I did badly on a few just to get the achievements 🙂
Bosses are huge totems. Each totem has three areas you have to punch. Once you punch each area to death, the totem dies. As you progress to larger, more difficult bosses, there will be more totems to destroy.
Achievements
Level specific achievements such as, “Absorb 50 chickens”, “Absorb 50 scientists”, “Attain X points on Y level”, will keep all achievement hunters playing levels multiple times to achieve 1000GS.
Bottom Line
While the story is tailored to kids, Tornado Outbreak will be fun for anyone. Difficulty does get harder as you go on, but you can always see what you have to do to complete the level. It’ll take a true player with patience to get all of the Fire Flyers, Rock Guys, and Orb Guys then still complete the level. I don’t think I quite have the patience for that, but if I did, it’d be another plus for the game.
Go ahead, hit New Game and destroy everything in your path cause you’re the baddest tornado around!
