Tornado Outbreak is the kind of game that will either slip by you unnoticed, or elicit a nonplussed look and a noncommittal shrug. It looks like the neglected child of Katamari Damacy and a Wild West version of the Helen Hunt movie Twister. Unfortunately, the product itself is not nearly as exciting as that description might lead you to believe it should be.
When you open the game for the first time, you are met with one of the simpler, more boring (and those two are definitely not necessarily synonymous) main menu screens of any game I’ve ever played. It makes old menu screens for games like Doom, Descent and Sim City look really exciting. It depicts the hero you will control throughout the game, a wind creature named Zephyr, who manifests in the form of a tornado in-game and in-cutscene.
Once you start playing, the game introduces you to your squad of Wind Warriors and your (and their) leader, the friendly, drill-sergeant-like Nimbus. You are also introduced to the game’s peculiar, overwrought, serious-yet-tongue in cheek narration (provided by the youthful Zephyr). Zephyr narrates his globe and galaxy-trotting tale of war and loyalty like a fresh, green recruit, who really does believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. One has to assume that the writers were trying to create this kind of attitude in their main player, and that it is in keeping/at odds with the ludicrous tone the rest of the game cultivates.
Zephyr, Nimbus, and the Wind Warriors are all out to aid a multi-dimensional antimatter being, Omegaton. His powers (represented by six glowing orbs) were stripped from him, and he was cast into our universe to suffer. Of course, reuniting him with his orbs will not be easy. Arrayed against Omegatron are an army of miniature flaming bad guys, called Fire Fliers (and repeatedly called “buggers,” for no apparent reason). To grab all of the orbs, you will have to fight and capture the Fire Fliers, and find the orbs they guard.
Of course, to do this, you will inevitably embark on a program of destruction and globe-hopping, moving from a Dinosaur Park (tar pools and giant fake dinosaurs, of course) to a military base to Las Vegas. As you travel, the dialogue and cutscenes get even more grandiose and bizarrely dramatic. It’s as if the Simpsons suddenly decided to really take themselves seriously. It ramps up to a truly odd story chronicling the squads continuing battles, Nimbus’ fall from power, and Zephyrs new responsibilities. It feels out of place and almost entirely unnecessary, but luckily, it is not the game’s focus.
Most of the game is spent controlling a tornado. Your goal is ostensibly to catch the Fire Fliers, reveal the hidden location of the orbs, and defeat the Fire Fliers dastardly totems (who nonsensically guard the orbs). This all translates into one thing: running things over with your tornado, and sucking them up. As you destroy your surroundings, you begin to amass enough material (sucked up from your surroundings) to increase your tornado in size and strength. You don’t see the items flowing through your tornado, but you do see the twister grow in size regularly.
Unfortunately, this is also where the gameplay ends. As you grow in size, you are allowed to destroy progressively larger and larger objects. Houses, cars, and bridges that before were impervious to your tornado now crumble before you. In a delightful little effect, they jiggle and shake as you approach them, giving you visual guides to the objects that are weak enough to tear up. To pick up Fire Fliers, you have to engage in a minigames: for every Fire Flier you pick up (and hold) you get a speed boost. Chaining Fire Fliers together extends the clock. Speaking of which, the developers have made the peculiar decision to add a timer to many of the missions, perhaps to add an air of urgency to otherwise incredibly simple tasks and missions.
Apparently, Weather Warriors are vulnerable to the sun, so you have to carry a device with you that creates its own cloud over (it also conveniently seeks out orbs). This is an excuse to add a series of minigames to the end of major missions. You have to create a giant storm around the totems to blot out the sun, and then you have to hide under fast moving clouds to get close enough to destroy the totems.
Other wrinkles are added to the formula as the game progresses, but none of them hide the fact that this is a very simple game. It isn’t exactly a kid’s game, and even if it were, it is still too simple and half-baked to appeal to all but the newest gamers. The graphics, presentation, and gameplay are all imitations of fully realized gameplay devices and art design.
I wish I could say that Tornado Outbreak is a kinetic, exciting title, despite its obvious budget constraints and small development team. Unfortunately, instead of creating a game that played to the strengths of smaller, niche titles, this game tries to appeal to some nebulous group might accept a modicum of fun and challenge. Maybe there will be a sequel that polishes things up and makes the game whole, but until then, this is a poor successor to destructively-themed casual and serious titles everywhere.
The Good:
Twister!: Who doesn’t want to play as a tornado?
The Bad:
Not so much: Well, who wants to play with a slow, boring tornado?
The Ugly:
Wasted potential: This could have been a great addictive, small title, one that made the interesting decisions that so many games never make.
Playthrough: Played through the whole campaign, played the game’s co-op and regular two player modes.
Recommendation: If you absolutely love Katamari Damacy (or campy representations of America) and don’t mind a slow, uninspiring journey, this might be for you.
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