I have extremely mixed thoughts on this game. I personally enjoyed probably around 70% of my time playing it. I unironically loved it up through World 6. Everything after that was a mixed bag with World 9 being the last major highlight. There were so, so many times I just stopped and went "...really? THAT'S the best they could come up with? That's it? REALLY?" Basically, I do not hate thisI have extremely mixed thoughts on this game. I personally enjoyed probably around 70% of my time playing it. I unironically loved it up through World 6. Everything after that was a mixed bag with World 9 being the last major highlight. There were so, so many times I just stopped and went "...really? THAT'S the best they could come up with? That's it? REALLY?" Basically, I do not hate this game but I don't exactly love it either.
First, the gameplay. Honestly, I don't mind it. The patch fixed the movement speed and jump being too slow and floaty so it doesn't feel awkward anymore. As for the controls, I followed the game since the initial reveal back in July 2020 so I always knew what it was going to be like and the issues with everything relying on the same button. I think it's heavily flawed but the level design is built around it surprisingly well so it doesn't really feel like too much of a problem to me. I'm not constantly switching back and forth between powers because the levels are broken down into chunks. You have sections where you fight enemies, sections where you're just running along trying to solve a puzzle to progress, and designated exploration sections where there's very obviously something hidden for you to find and you have to get to a hard to reach spot somehow to get it. They're usually distinct and I only found myself switching once every few minutes. It's not bad at all but still I have to ask... why even have this system in the first place? What was the point?
Then there's the powers themselves. There are so many repeats. There's a costume that lets you cross gaps and then three more that do the same thing, although they give you more distance and one gives you extra vertical height. I guess it's cool that there's more useful versions of powers later on but it just feels lazy. If they're just variations of each other then why not have an upgrade system instead? Let me turn my Air Cats into Frost Fairies or something. There's no point in having both. There are some creative powers such as one that lets you detach your head and fly around and one that lets you teleport to large gems but there's not that many like them. I like the amount of options they give you but it still seems a little underwhelming overall.
More about the level design, I actually think it's well done. In general the collectibles are hidden well enough. Nothing ever feels too unfair. There are some costumes that do feel really satisfying to find for the first time like most of the post-game ones as well as Double Jump and Paladin Punch.
The visuals and soundtrack are good. I have no complaints about anything though I know a lot of people will hate the cheesy vocal songs. I love them though. It's like I'm watching a really awkward Disney movie and it's kind of great.
Last, the story. So it's a platformer and a 90s esque one at that. I wasn't expecting amazing storytelling but I was at least expecting more than what we got. Nothing is explained at all. I don't know what the Tims are, what the clock is, what I'm even doing or why I'm doing it, the relationship between the characters and the protagonists, why I should care about these people, why everyone's always dancing for no reason, etc. Nothing at all. There is a novel that goes along with the game but I don't want to have to purchase supplementary material just to be able to understand the basic story. I did read the book and while it was a very fun read, this shouldn't be necessary! Game books are supposed to be for the extra lore, not this. I don't know if they were scared of bogging the game down with cutscenes or what but they could have just made them skippable. No one would have complained about optional content. They don't have to be the big budget prerendered ones, even simple in game cutscenes would have sufficed. They made all these great looking models and even created a fictional language and it's all barely used. I just don't get it. Why? Why ignore all of that? What happened here?
There's so many things I like about the game but it feels like for every one thing it does well, there's something it does totally half-baked. I don't know how I feel about it overall. I enjoyed playing this game for the most part but I can't actually determine if it's good or not. That's how conflicted I am about it. A game has NEVER made me feel this way before, for better or worse.
I'm giving it a 7. I think it's more of a 6.5 for me but 6 feels too low since I did generally enjoy most of it. I have NO idea what the people rating it 10 are thinking, same with the ones below 5. It's not amazing but it's far from terrible. It's just a painfully average game with a couple satisfying bits thrown in here and there. If you like 90s era platformers then you might like this but just wait until it goes on sale. It's fun at times but not $60 worth of fun… Expand
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