iO

A straightforward puzzler that borders on the fiendish as you progress. If that's your thing then iO will definitely be in your wheelhouse.

With so many mediocre platforming games flooding stores these days, it’s refreshing to see something unique. Although at face value iO seems quite bare, the challenging level design and interesting mechanics make it worth a look at if you like puzzles.

iO offers us an original and challenging platform gameplay mechanic coupled with a charming minimalist design: definitely suggested to every skill-based 2d platformer lover.

iO is a great example of relying on a simple premise and fun gameplay over lavish visuals and an engaging narrative. Obviously there’s a niche market for platforming games like this, especially for those that love to challenge themselves, but given the number of rushed titles and influx of mediocre indie games on the market, iO really surprised me and taught me once again to not judge a game by its looks, but by its interesting mechanics and gameplay instead.

iO proves that you don’t need a great story, you don’t need stunning visuals, you don’t need complex controls and you don’t need a banging soundtrack. You will however need to be a certain type of gamer to enjoy all the stages that iO delivers, but should you be a puzzle fiend and in the market for a clever, albeit slightly frustrating, abstract brain taxer, then you could do worse than check it out.

What's there in the game is quite good, the issue is that there isn't very much of it. Once you've had your fill of the challenges in the main game, there's nothing else to do except speed run those same levels again. That on top of a complete and utter lack of production value of any kind leaves the game feeling more like a prototype of a cool idea than a full game.