Space Ark is a sort of bubble-pop, candy-coated game where all the characters are cute and cuddly animals and all the environments are bright and cheery. It’s not a bad thing, it just means you might need a strong sweet tooth to handle it.
You take on the role of the Arkonauts who have set out to terraform planets that have been devastated by a roving black hole. To regenerate the life that inhabited them you have to collect DNA blocks with your character via a bounce pad. So essentially you’re playing on a 2D field with a slight curve in it due to the planet’s curvature.
By stringing together DNA blocks you make combos, combos give you better scores, etc. Combos make fruit bonuses, fruit bonuses increase your points multiplier, therefore you have higher scores per level.
Each world is broken into a series of levels for each Arkonaut. To move to the next fragment of the planet you have to successfully pass all of the levels for the current character.
Now don’t let the cutesy art-style of the game fool you. There’s some serious challenge in this title. Moving the bounce 
pad in one direction to collect falling fruit while trying to maneuver your character in the air with the other stick gets to be hectic from time to time.
Plus there’s the added challenge of having a perfect level, collecting all DNA blocks, all fruits and specials and not dying (I think) which gives you a big points boost as well.
There are five planets and 28 fragments in all, with each fragment having six levels except for the tutorial. It’s a lot of game to be had in this XBLA exclusive from Strawdog Studios. It will also feature multiplayer which looks to be local Co-op or head-to-head split screen. It also features three modes - Mission, Time Attack and Survival.
While the game’s music might grate on your nerves after awhile, the game itself shouldn’t and provides some fair amount of challenge for everyone who likes arcade style games.
The game is set for a June release on XBLA. Watch for a full GDN review closer to launch.
- Players: 1-2
- Players Co-op: 1-2
- Multiplayer Versus
- In-game Dolby Digital
- HDTV 720p
- Storage Device
- Leaderboards
