Reviews - VetleNM

This is a charming, polished puzzle platformer that quickly became one of my favourite experiences this year, and it was well worth the price of admission.

The game is broken out into ten chapters with ten levels each; each chapter introduces more characters with different mechanics. While Thomas himself is a rather standard platforming character, you'll soon meet Chris, the short, yellow square, who can fit into smaller spaces, but cannot jump as high, for example. Most of the levels require coordination between the different characters in order to reach the goal. Gameplaywise, there's nothing terribly original here, but it's a solid implementation nonetheless.

Each character you meet has its own endearing personality, presented by a brilliant narrator, who tells you the characters' thoughts as you progress through the levels. You quickly become attached to the different personalities as you encounter them throughout the game. (My favourite was the big, blue square -- you'll probably see what I mean when you encounter her.)

The rest of the presentation is also top notch. The visuals are simplistic and stylish. As a byproduct of the minimalistic presentation, it runs great on older hardware, which is nice. The soundtrack deserves special mention as well. It's a superb bitpop soundtrack, which combines electronic elements with more classical music, which serves to underscore the game's central thematic. The moodiness of most of the music meshes well with the melancholic narrative tone of the game.

In my eyes, the only potentially negative thing about this game is the length. For €8, you'll get a game that'll probably last you anywhere between 90 minutes to two hours. In my opinion, this is fine for the quality of the experience this game offers, but as always, your mileage may vary.

If you like games with a strong narration and engaging characters, it doesn't get much better than this, and you owe it to yourself to at least try out the demo. Highly recommended!