MOP: Operation Cleanup

The idea of an environmentally-conscious hero cleaning up our dirty planet is certainly nothing new. From Captain Planet and the Global Gladiators, this is a theme we used to see a lot of back in the 1990s. But apparently Mick and Mack didn't get the job done, because here we are in 2016 forced to clean up more trash in the brand new PlayStation 4 game, MOP: Operation Cleanup.

You play a friendly robot tasked with picking up the world's discarded crap. Unfortunately, our hero is a little busted. While he's able to pick up trash with the best of them, he isn't able to stop or change direction on command. This means you will barrel forward at full speed, only turning around when he hits a wall or barrier.

This sets up a pretty standard 2D platforming experience. MOP races forward picking up trash, avoiding enemies and double jumping to high up ledges. He'll need to learn how to wall jump, swim and even slide down sloped paths in order to uncover every last piece of refuse. If you can pick up enough litter and make it to the checkered flag, you'll be rushed off to the next stage, where you'll do the whole thing all over again.

As a platformer, the level designs are perfectly fine. MOP: Operation Cleanup starts out simple enough, but you'll quickly discover that our hero will need to go out of his way in order to complete all of the objectives. You can skip huge chunks of the level in an effort to find the finish line. And since there's never a quota to move on to the next stage, it won't take long to complete this inexpensive action game.

There are a few things that make the collecting process a lot more difficult than it should be. For one thing, the gameplay feels a little off. If I don't have direct control over my character's movement, then you better believe the jumping mechanics need to be pin-point accurate. But that is not the case in MOP. There's a slight delay between pressing the button and jumping, which is only made worse when you bounce off of objects or are close to ledges.

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It's also far too easy to miss important areas because you accidentally rolled past them. With no way to turn around, players will be forced to restart the level from scratch. This is made even worse as the game introduces larger stages filled with all kinds of cheap deaths. Couple this with the imprecise control and I found much of this cleanup to be frustrating.

MOP isn't helped by its ugly presentation. While the robot hero is cute, the world he inhabits uses muted colors and repeating graphics. It also doesn't run especially smoothly. I ran into a number of frame rate issues, which struck me as a little odd given how simple the visuals are. It's clear this game needed a little extra time in the oven.

As much as I like the message, I find it hard to recommend MOP: Operation Cleanup. The gameplay issues sink what could have been a fun, albeit standard 2D platformer. This feels more like a blown-up mobile game than proper console experience, and I found the entire affair only slightly more fun than taking out the garbage in real life.