Antipole is Saturnine Games newest platformer title created for eShop/DSiWare. Antipole tells a story about Johnny Hurricane, (kind of looks like Carmen Sandiago) who was hired by the government to infiltrate a robot mothership and do what most people do when they infiltrate a robot mothership, destroy it. The story is really not that important to the game. In fact you really have to dig deep to get anything out of it. But the story is not what makes Antipole interesting.

Antipole is not your straightforward run jump and shoot platformer. Antipole allows the player to control gravity in a certain area around Johnny Hurricane. This ability takes everything on the ground, enemies, heart pieces, bombs, and flips them to the ceiling. This ability only lasts for a short amount of time, just about 3 seconds at first, then you are thrust back down, to normal bearing’s, while the meter recharges for another 3 seconds.

The use of gravity takes Antipole from an average platform to something a little more interesting. The gravity is used to help find your way through the alien ship. It is an alien ship, they do not make things easy. Timing is key to surviving the ship. By using the R-button you can quickly switch from anti-gravity to gravity, which could cause, if your timing is right, Johnny Hurricane to float by obstacles that are above and below him. Getting this timing down can be tough and frustrating at times but that is what makes platformer games so fun. Something that took me a little while to figure out, which made the game a little easier, was using the anti-gravity against your enemies. Like other platformer games enemies seem to enjoying hanging out where you land after successfully jumping over a large pit of deathly lasers. To combat this you could quickly switch the gravity to the ceiling, lure the enemy away from the platform and once you find yourself at a safe place, quickly switch the gravity back to normal and watch the enemy fall into the lasers. I did feel a little dumb not realizing this earlier.

Once again Antiople is an average platformer game that is made interesting by the ability to manipulate gravity. If you are a fan of platformer games, Antipole is an interesting take on the genre. Antipole may not be the greatest game available for Nintendo’s digital download service but if you are looking for something new, Antipole could be the game for you.