What is it that’s so likeable about penguins? Is it their basic adorable appearance? Is it the fact that they generally look huggable? Is it the fact that they know how to dance, as accurately portrayed in the documentary Happy Feet? I’d say yes to all of those. And that’s why we see so many penguins in our movies and TV shows. And app games. Which I’m reviewing today. It’s called Penguin Village. It’s for Windows devices. That is all.

The Basics

When I first saw the title was Penguin Village, I figured they’d be going for a whole “Club Penguin” kind of thing. You know, that game where kids can play as Penguins and…chat about penguin stuff? I’m not sure, I haven’t really played it. Well, this game is not that. But I can’t talk about that yet. This is the Basics section. I’m forbidden to speak of any gameplay until the appropriate section. Thank you for understanding.\

The Gameplay

While this is not a Club Penguin-ish game, it’s more of a Mario-meets-Temple Run kind of experience. You see, you don’t actually control your movement, only jumping and ducking. And throwing…rocks? I don’t remember that from March Of The Penguins. You also collect fruits and vegetables while battling aliens. I definitely don’t remember that from March Of The Penguins.

Is It Fun?

While it’s nothing I haven’t seen before, I had a decent time with Penguin Village. The controls are decent, the obstacles are plentiful, and there’s no shortage of standard platforming items to collect. You can tell they wanted to try something original, as evidenced by the fact that you battle aliens. However, I ran into one major problem with the game – the advertising placement. At least for me, there was a large banner ad placed between the buttons on the screen. This made seeing what’s below you nearly impossible at times, leading to plenty of mistakes by me. Caused by mistakes by the game.

The Bottom Line

Penguin Village has all the basic parts of a good game. It has decent gameplay, a cute, cuddly mascot, and aliens. But the game’s strange ad placement makes me consider this game more mediocre than good. Is it too late for the game to jump from mediocre to good? Well, I’m not an app developer and don’t know how to move ads around. But I bet it’s easy. Right?