PONCHO

 Wii U
Metascore
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No score yet - based on 3 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. Cubed3
    Oct 30, 2016
    60
    Poncho is a short adventure with excellent storytelling and amusing aspects, but far from being a flawless game, because of its technical issues, lack of challenge and altogether limited gameplay potential. An unexceptional game, but with enough personality and redeeming features that prevent it from being immediately forgotten.
  2. Nintendo Life
    Aug 21, 2016
    60
    Check out Poncho if you enjoy puzzle problem solving within a slower-paced platforming game environment, otherwise think carefully before trying it out.
  3. FNintendo
    Oct 31, 2016
    50
    Poncho lives much more off its puzzles and mental reasoning demands than of platforming action - not to mention it features unlimited lives - and any potential for a fluid action game is lost in this.

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No user score yet- Awaiting 1 more rating

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 3
  3. Negative: 1 out of 3
  1. SuperkenGaming
    Nov 14, 2015
    7
    PONCHO
    from fun to frustrating
    Poncho is colorful, gorgeous, and charming, This is a 2.5dish puzzle platformer where you play as an adorable    PONCHO
    from fun to frustrating
    Poncho is colorful, gorgeous, and charming, This is a 2.5dish puzzle platformer where you play as an adorable blue robot in a poncho set out to save the world…
    This game can be absolutely down right fun and addicting, but sadly only about half of the time.
    The levels in poncho are very explorery, to progress you go around collecting keys or cubes to buy keys from shops, and you flip switches and solve environmental puzzles to find the next teleporter and move on to the next level
    There are 3 layers in every world and you can hop back and forth between the middle, the foreground, and the background, this concept alone is enough to make a 10/10 experience with challenging platforming using simple timing tricks, and storytelling with the gorgeous environment.. but instead they add these annoying white blocks with seemingly no pattern that essentially give no warning they are about to change, I mean they kind of do, but even once you see it it doesn’t matter because they’re all timed differently and you don’t know if it’s about to go forward or backwards, and then you fall and you have to repeat over and over and over,. Because you can’t die and there are no checkpoints…The concept of dimension hopping is great, but dimensions look completely flat, so the human eye can’t see the next moving platform you need to jump onto or dodge, because there’s lights flashing, platforms moving, it’s not fun. These parts ruined the overall experience for me…
    Because other than these moving cubes, PONCHO is a great concept..
    And I’m not over exaggerating or crying because I wasn’t good at the game… There’s just simply no obstacle to overcome with them, there is no skill to learn… what they do one time they won’t do the next time, it’s less about timing your jumps and switches and more about praying you’re in the right algorithm and you don’t get knocked back to the start….
    I found myself getting through with luck and button mashing… they simply just got in the way of my fun…
    it isn’t all too bad though... poncho can be pretty enjoyable until you get to the frustrating level 5..bet then its good again for the final 4 levels.. but never mind they’re going to smack you again with the final level… for the final level they literally throw all of the things wrong with this game at you.
    The finale was a perfect opportunity to give a casual high 5 fun for all experience, but instead they decide to leave you with a bad taste in your mouth if you cant find the patience inside of you to push through the poorly designed ending puzzle sequence… it’s a jumbled mess.
    I’ve said it once and I’ll probably say it over 9000 times again there’s a difference between challenging and difficult, challenging is fun and engaging... Difficult is just straight up frustration.
    I feel like PONCHO makes the mistake of being hard just for the sake of being hard... the story, the color, the opening it all fools you into thinking this game wants to deliver an experience, but ultimately it sacrifices challenge for frustration.
    It’s almost like the developers don’t want you to enjoy or beat their game... The moment you start having fun they take it away from you.
    You’ll lose hours to the same annoying sections rather than losing hours replaying moments you loved… just saying no to the game creeped into my mind way too many times than it should.
    As far as actually bugs go though, this game is fairly clear of them, but its super easy to find yourself in an endless death loop in some of the smaller stages and I found my character constantly not jumping when I pressed x almost as if the sensitivity for commands is way too low…
    I’m almost convinced no one is meant to beat this game…
    But I’m glad that I ultimately did.
    For me, the ending was worth the endless hours stuck in the final tour.
    But I’m persistent as heck, if you annoy easily, you owe it to your blood pressure to stay away.
    For what it is
    Puzzle Platformer: 6.5/10
    Overall: 6.5/10    … Full Review »
  2. PSVGKevin
    Aug 22, 2016
    8
    Poncho is a game that, a week ago, I was essentially unfamiliar with. However, it was highlighted on Nintendo’s eShop update this week, alongPoncho is a game that, a week ago, I was essentially unfamiliar with. However, it was highlighted on Nintendo’s eShop update this week, along with a trailer, and it instantly hooked me. We at PSVG reached out the to the development team and they were gracious enough to supply us with a press copy of the game. I played the game on the Wii U, entirely on the gamepad, but it is also available on PS4, Vita, PC and Mac.

    Poncho is an old-school 8-bit syle platformer, but with a major twist. You have the ability to jump into the background and foreground, adding depth to what otherwise would be a 2-D, side-scrolling adventure. The story is about a robot who awakens to discover a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has totally disappeared. What happened is a mystery at the start of the game, but it is up to our Poncho-wearing hero to find out what happened and attempt to restore humanity. The landscape is primarily made up of ruined buildings that have now become overgrown with vines and vegetation, with no signs of life other than the occasional robots you run into that are constantly questioning their own existence on this planet (or what remains of it). The overall style of the game is phenomenal and instantly brought me back to the good old days of NES gaming. The controls are very simple for anyone to use: B button to jump, right trigger to jump into the foreground, and the left trigger to jump into the background. It’s that simple. The game is very easy to play, but not easy to master. There are many skilled timed jumps needed to get to certain areas of the game, which could easily cause some gamers to rage quit. However I pushed through and continued on my quest to get to the red tower. I will keep the rest of the story spoiler-free for those of you that want to play it after reading this.

    The music, along with the art style and innovative gameplay mechanics, are what make this game shine. The soundtrack adds to the wonder of the levels and has an almost eerie feel to it, but nostalgic to some great scores, like a Chrono Trigger or early Final Fantasy games. The game is not terribly long, but does have some replay for completionists to revisit to unlock every door and collect every gem (for the sake of getting this review out, I have not, YET). Gamers familiar with old-school platformers can expect this game to last 4-6 hours; novices can expect 5-7 hours; and completionists might need 7-8 hours to collect everything.

    No game is without flaws; therefore, it is necessary to point out a few I found in Poncho. Fortunately, no flaws were so glaring that they deterred me from playing the game. A few times, the game slowed down when a lot of animated objects were on screen at the same time. Also, the game kind of just throws you into the mix without much (if any) explanation of what you are supposed to be doing. For any of you that will try this one out, I will help you out a bit: Collect as many red gems as you can so that you can buy keys from the creepy robot in a trench coat who flashes you. This way, you can unlock doors as they get into your way, in search of each level’s “launch-pad” that will take you to the next level. The other concern I had, at times, was the jumping from foreground to background. At times, it was unclear where to go, and sometimes, I couldn’t see where I was going (or trying to) when I was in between the different layers. However, this was not something that ruined the game for me, and it shouldn’t keep you from it, either.

    The last thing I want to highlight is this game’s ending. I will not spoil it with details, but I will tell you, I was not expecting anything like the ending I saw from a game that didn’t give much guidance along the way. It was a great ending, and definitely serves as a payoff for some of the rage you may experience while jumping around for 3 or 4 hours.

    Overall, I think this a great game for anyone who is a fan of the 8-bit retro-inspired indie games. Poncho, instead of parodying the genre, will feel like a homecoming to those who grew up with these types of games. Combine its very different gameplay mechanics with a great score and, overall, you have yourself a winner. It was a great summer game that I was able to jump in and out of when I had the time, and I loved every minute of it. I cannot wait to see what this dev team has up their sleeves next. I’ve seen a lot of comparisons to this and Fez; however, I enjoyed Poncho more. Congratulations, Danny Hayes (Designer/Coder/Writer), Jack O’Dell (Composer/Designer), and Matt Weekes (Artist/Character Designer) – you have earned a new fan and I can’t wait to see what you have planned next!

    http://www.playsomevideogames.com/poncho-review-wii-u/    … Full Review »
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