The controls feel very intuitive, despite the lack of dialog i understood what i was supposed to do most of the time, which is a real positive feeling for me, feeling like i am in control of the character is one of the most important things for a videogame.
It took me a couple of attempts to understand that i was supposed to hide the key inside my cube form so it didn’t disappear, but after i did t i it felt like a real smart puzzle.
After advancing for a while and solving a couple of more puzzles, i reached the room with no way to go through, and since there was some odd colored squares bellow that black square that i didn’t know what to do, i immediately tried to groundpound on it to find the solution, just to be absorbed by the black square and learn those things were teleported, that was a great feeling moment, that made me open my mouth and say “Ooooh!!!” out loud, im ever increasingly surprised at the level of “Show, don’t tell” that this game features, where im constantly being taught things without being treated like im dumb.
However, my only gripe so far is that the teleporter where there is spikes bellow is a little too tall, so it took me a couple of attempts to manage to get back into the teleporter.
…Hold on, spikes? I just learnt that i can break through blocks with the groundpound even if there is spikes on top, there is no way i can… or could i? Writing about my gripe about the teleporter made me think about it, so i tested it out and… Boom! I was right! There is a path to follow in there!
After advancing for a little longer, i managed to reach the new part, where red turns back to blue, and i really wish there was a way to look at the full map, because even in teleporters, i could only look around to the closest maps in the teleporter, not at the whole thing, which feels like something i wanted to do considering the intention is for me to explore and backtrack.
After finding absolutely nothing, i went back to the room, thinking about what to do, i can’t break the floor on this room, so there was nothing do do here.
Wait, can’t i? I felt like i didn’t get enough height to do it, but looking at it, there was a space with a solo block that i could break, so i spent a while trying to get it, and at the end i did indeed managed to do it.
However i would say this was a badly designed room, because i kept hitting the floor, and thus not being able to get enough height to groundpound, this doesn’t feel like extremely precise movement was an intended feature of this game, so i will have to put that as a negative on the overall game.
Advancing more and more, i found a new teleporter, that it was out of reach because i broke the blocks, so i could not touch it, but i could touch the checkpoint, so if i died, i managed to activate it, it took me a while of exploring to go back and think “Why was this a thing? What did i learn from this?”, after another roam through the map, i went back and looked at it, what i was missing? There is the place, the color of the blocks didn’t seem to explain much to me, is there something else? Just a grave, some spikes, some grav- wait, a grave? On the room where im supposed to die? Are the background objects intended for me to learn what each thing means everywhere? Yes! The Spikes meant i had to groundpound there, and the graves meant i had to die to reset the ground! Thanks to that information, i could backtrack to the place i didn’t know how to break the floor, die and BOOM! The broken floor was back, perfect for me to advance to a new zone!
Following through, the next zone was some puzzles that used this new learnt mechanic to make me break blocks, get the checkpoint, die and respawn on the checkpoints with the blocks back in place, real good use of learnt mechanics on there.
After reaching the end of that zone, i found the 6th teleporter, and i go back to the start, thinking i have finally finished the game (i didn’t) and thanks to a slip of my fingers, i learnt about a new mechanic that im pretty certain i wasn’t supposed to learn yet, so i will mention it when we reach that part, but i did manage to find a little secret thanks to this, tho.
No, the game wasn’t over, so i went back to the last teleport and looked at the room, what was this trying to teach me? There is nothing that stands out on the room, just a jump to get into the teleporter, a little too tall… Ah, i know what this is trying to teach me, the inertia from groundpound is saved between teleports! This was something i already noticed before, but i didn’t see any place to use it, so i looked through the teleporters that i already had unlocked and there i found one with breakable floor! To the next zone i went, purple time it is!
And here i see that the next puzzle was the exact thing i accidentally learnt a minute ago, when i groundpound, if i change back from square before touching the floor, instead of a groundpound i bounce real hard, basically making me obtain a high jump. However, instead of advancing here, i decided to go back to where i was before, i swear i saw a small hole while i was falling to the purple zone… and i found another teleporter! Was this intended or did i just skip progress accidentally? Can’t say right now, i guess i will learn after i continue.
However it was intended or not, i learn that if i transform into the last second, i parry the bullets, something to remember for the future, and while advancing through the assumed intended path, i also see a room that weirdly reminds me of the starting zone, two things for my mental checks to remember for the future.
And i see that i made a loop to where i thought i wasn’t supposed to be, it does indeed seem that i skipped a little bit of progress accidentally, whoops! No matter though, i decide to go to the starting zone and see if my assumptions are correct, and they were! one last teleporter found!
And it seemed like it was indeed the last teleporter! and at the starting zone, a weird glow appeared, instinct tells me that it’s the ending, so before interacting with it, i want to see what happens to the right, if i parry the bullet at the start… Ah, a map of the whole zone, just at the end, how cheeky!
My overall experience with this game was extremely positive, with the exception of the two specific complains i have put, my only other gripe with the game is that i wish there was a little more song variety.
Personal Score: 9/10, i would honestly consider this a full game that i might have bought on steam.