Mekazoo Trailer: Donkey Kong Meets Sonic

With Sonic constantly losing his rings and Nintendo taking its sweet time for its big side-scrolling titles, Mekazoo is bringing the fast-paced platforming to current-gen consoles later this year.

A Seattle-based indie studio, The Good Mood Creators, has released its first official trailer for their debut title, Mekazoo. While this admirable game and this small team are not on the gaming world's radar yet, they should be. Through Mekazoo, The Good Mood Creators are catering to everyone's inner child that forever immortalized the likes of Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country 1-3 and the first four Sonic The Hedgehog games.

Mekazoo takes 2D platforming and gives it a gorgeous 3D backdrop, often twisting in angles to help showcase its unique aesthetics. You get to control one of five Mekanimals, who can traverse each side-scrolling stage with their distinct abilities. Players can bounce, fly, climb, boost, swing and run through each impressive level. The pelican can fly, the panda is slow but strong, the wallaby can bounce, the frog is agile and the armadillo is fast. Since armadillos are slow-moving, you don't have to be a rocket scientist (or an evil one named Eggman) to know The Good Mood Creators are paying homage.

"Mekazoo is inspired by the platformer classics we spent every second with after school, like Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country," said Jarrett Slavin, creative director, The Good Mood Creators. "We are combining all the lessons learned from those masterpieces and the innovative ideas we've spent decades brainstorming to deliver the game we wish existed since we were kids."

Mekazoo will bring its gorgeous 2D/3D hybrid platforming to the Wii U, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC in Q4 2015.