Oddmar

Oddmar follows a hapless Viking outcast named Oddmar who isn’t exactly warrior material. After his village sails off to glory without him, a magical mushroom grants him superhuman abilities, and suddenly this reject has a shot at proving himself worthy of Valhalla. The setup is charming without overstaying its welcome, told through animated cutscenes that look like they belong in a Saturday morning cartoon. Mobge Ltd, the studio behind the well-regarded Leo’s Fortune, built something that shares that game’s visual polish but pushes the platforming in a more ambitious direction.

Community reception has been overwhelmingly warm since the game launched in 2018. It won the Apple Design Award that year and was widely celebrated as one of the finest mobile platformers available. Players consistently bring up the same strengths: the art is gorgeous, the controls work better than they have any right to on a touchscreen, and the level design hits a sweet spot between accessibility and genuine challenge. Criticisms exist, but they tend to circle back to one issue: wanting more of it.

The Visual Design That Hook You in Oddmar

Animation quality is the standout. Every frame of Oddmar looks hand-painted, with layered parallax backgrounds that give depth to forests, caves, and frozen mountain passes. Characters move with fluid exaggeration, enemies have distinct visual personalities, and environmental details like swaying grass and drifting leaves make each level feel alive. Players frequently compare the visual presentation to the best entries in the Rayman series, which is about the highest compliment a 2D platformer can receive.

Controls are where many mobile platformers fall apart, and Oddmar sidesteps that problem almost entirely. Swipe up to jump, swipe down to ground slam, tap to attack. It sounds simple, and it is, but the responsiveness makes all the difference. Inputs register cleanly, and the game builds its challenges around what touch controls do well rather than fighting against their limitations. Controller support exists for those who prefer it, but most players report that touch works just fine, which is a rare thing to say about a precision platformer on a phone.

Level design keeps the experience moving without repeating itself. Across 24 stages split into multiple worlds, the game introduces new mechanics at a steady pace. Magical shields, wall-jumping sections, physics-driven puzzles, and boss encounters that demand more than just button-mashing all show up at the right moments. Each level also hides collectible items and optional challenges, giving completionists a reason to replay stages they’ve already cleared. The difficulty curve feels considered, rising gradually enough that newer players won’t get stuck while still rewarding skilled play.

Boss fights deserve their own mention. Rather than dropping a big enemy on screen and calling it a day, the game treats each boss as a set-piece event with unique attack patterns and environmental hazards. These encounters break up the standard platforming nicely and provide genuine tension without tipping into frustration.

Where Oddmar Drops the Ball

Length is the most common complaint by a wide margin. With 24 levels, a first playthrough takes roughly two and a half to three hours. For a premium-priced mobile game, that’s not terrible value, especially when the quality per minute is this high. But players who fall in love with the game’s feel hit the ending fast and wish the adventure kept going. Star challenges and speedrun goals add replay value, but they don’t replace the feeling of fresh content.

Story ambition outpaces its execution. The animated cutscenes are beautifully drawn, but the narrative itself doesn’t develop its characters or world with much depth. Plot threads get introduced and then left hanging, and by the time the ending arrives, the emotional payoff doesn’t match the visual investment. For a platformer, story is rarely the main draw, but Oddmar sets up expectations with its elaborate cutscenes that it doesn’t fully deliver on.

Content updates have been minimal since launch. Players who picked up the game hoping for additional worlds or levels over time haven’t seen much materialize. The later release as Oddmar+ on Apple Arcade brought the game to a subscription audience, but it didn’t add new stages or modes. What’s there is excellent, but there’s a sense that the foundation could support much more than it currently does.

A Platformer Built for Phones

Most mobile platformers feel like compromises. Virtual d-pads and floating buttons try to recreate console controls on a flat piece of glass, and the results usually range from tolerable to awful. Oddmar’s biggest achievement is that it was designed from the ground up for touch input. The swipe-and-tap control scheme doesn’t emulate anything. It’s native to the device, and the levels are built around what that scheme does well. Jumping between narrow platforms feels precise. Combat flows naturally from movement. The whole game has a sense of rhythm that comes from controls and level design being developed hand-in-hand, not bolted together after the fact. This is what a mobile platformer looks like when the team refuses to treat the platform as a limitation.

Should You Download Oddmar?

Anyone who enjoys 2D platformers and owns a phone or tablet should play Oddmar. It’s equally well-suited for casual players who want a beautiful game to dip into on a commute and for genre fans looking for something that respects their skill. Skip it if game length is a hard line for you. Three hours is three hours, no matter how good they are, and there’s no procedural content or endless mode to extend the experience beyond the handcrafted stages.

The Verdict on Oddmar

Oddmar is one of the best platformers available on any mobile device. Its hand-drawn animation, tight controls, and inventive level design put it in rare company for the genre on phones and tablets. The 24 levels can be cleared in a few hours, and players hungry for more content will hit the ceiling fast. But every one of those hours is packed with quality that rivals big-budget console platformers, and the free opening chapter makes it easy to find out if the game clicks before spending a dime. Few mobile games feel this polished, and even fewer play this well with touch controls.