Freakyforms Deluxe: Your Creations, Alive! is the retail version of the downloadable 3DS title released last year.  What do you get for paying more money?  More Freakyforms-related fun of course!  Plus a dungeon mode to occupy your time.

For anyone unfamiliar with the weirdly wonderful Freakyforms here is a basic summary: you use shapes to create creatures, give them names, voices and a catchphrase and send them on their way.  You can move them around landscapes and collect coins and eat fruit but the crux is definitely the creative aspect.

It’s not the most complex title by any stretch of the imagination, and the inclusion of an adventure/platform mode doesn’t really make it any more challenging, but the fun lies in the creativity.  Like titles such as LittleBigPlanet, Freakyforms is all about the joy of creating, although in this game it takes the form of bizarre creatures known as Formees.

The creation mechanism lies at the heart of the game and Asobism has developed a tool with some good depth.  You start off with basic shapes, which you can change in size and colour, and as you progress through the game you unlock more shapes and items (such as wheels and wings, allowing you to create robots and vehicles as well).

Once you’ve created your Formee and given it a name, catchphrase and one of the weirdly hilarious voices it is time to let it loose into the world!  The Formee is controlled using the touchscreen, moving in whatever direction you point it.  There is a large circle in the middle of the screen that you can use to jump and dragging the circle and flicking it.  The use of the touch screen, rather than the face buttons, helps add to the sense of elasticity that emanate from the creatures themselves.

It is not just the Formees that can be created and customised though.  The landscape can be decorated, the trees made into weird shapes and the whole world made to reflect whatever you want.  It’s a truly versatile creativity device that highlights the childish joy that can be had in letting your imagination run wild.

As you play the game you will be challenged by other Formees to perform tasks, create new things or even just gorge on food.  These challenges provide some entertainment but they won’t keep you perplexed for too long.  Without a doubt Freakyforms is all about creating.

The game’s visuals and sounds are without comparison.  Bright, bizarre and bloody brilliant in many ways; Freakyforms is one of those games that defies convention.  The visual style was probably adopted to ensure the gameplay mechanic could be operated but it works in an enjoyably crude way, reminiscent of South Park.  

The audio, including the music and the Formee’s speech banks, is something to behold.  The Worms series is known for its range of weird and wonderful dialects and Freakyforms too has a bizarre range of voices for your Formee.  You have a selection of around a dozen types of voices (excited, girly, dramatic etc) and can alter the pitch for each.  They seem to speak in something that sounds Japanese but is probably closer to Simlish.  Whatever it may be, it provides more enjoyable than an adult should admit to.

The ability to StreetPass your Formees and bring them to life with the Nintendo 3DS’ augmented reality features shows that this isn’t a slapped-together title, but the likelihood of finding anyone else who has a Formee to StreetPass is rare in day-to-day life.

Anyone who has downloaded and played the original, or ‘lite’ version as it essentially is, will be disappointed to hear that you have to start off by treading the same ground.  You can import your previous creations but you still have to essentially start the game from scratch, which may put some people off trying out this new version.

The biggest addition in this retail version are the dungeons that you can take your Formee into.  While in these dungeons you can explore, collect and most importantly battle other monsters.  The fighting gameplay is simple, with your moves chosen at random by the computer, but there’s a very unique pleasuring in watching such weird creatures attack each other.

Whether or not it is worth buying the retail version if you already own the original depends how much you enjoy Freakyforms.  The creation aspect still remains fun, but that’s because it’s not been changed.  There are some additions to the overall package but Freakyforms Deluxe appears to be an attempt to reach a wider audience, one that may not check out the eShop.

Regardless, the game still provides one of the most weirdly enjoyable gameplay experiences on the Nintendo 3DS and if you’re looking for something different you can’t go wrong with Freakyforms Deluxe: Your Creations, Alive!