This was a really good challenging 2D platformer, I realized just before I started the game that this was the first game by the Tinykin developer and I can totally see the similarities/DNA. The game is full of bright colors and it has a great sense of progression with powers. You start only being able to shoot water, but over time gain the ability to make red slime that you can stick to as well as yellow slime you can bounce off. The levels get more complicated as they go, the last few really were breaking my brain at times trying to get to each checkpoint while saving as many scientists as I could.
Plays really nicely for most of the time, to an incredibly impressive degree. Wears its Rayman influence on its sleeve and absolutely does it justice. Unfortunately it crashed for me right at the end of the final level which was knd of annoying, and also, sometimes the design just feels a bit awkward or frustrating, which is all the more annoying when there's some really fantastic stuff in here!
Its fun but pretty short.
Very colorful platformer with a focus on speedrunning. The game is initially on the easy side, and a casual playthrough should not give anyone any trouble. However, that cannot be said about the real challenges in the game.
Beating the platinum time for each individual level was the most fun I had with the game. Then there are three full game speedruns that you can do. An any% run, which was probably the hardest one due to the platinum time being quite tight and having to find a compromise between going fast and using safe strats, a speedrun where you have to collect about half the Splashers (collectibles) and lastly a 100% run.
The last one has a platinum time of 73 minutes and is thus a pretty long speedrun. This one was a bit of a slog.
Beating the platinum time for each individual level was the most fun I had with the game. Then there are three full game speedruns that you can do. An any% run, which was probably the hardest one due to the platinum time being quite tight and having to find a compromise between going fast and using safe strats, a speedrun where you have to collect about half the Splashers (collectibles) and lastly a 100% run.
The last one has a platinum time of 73 minutes and is thus a pretty long speedrun. This one was a bit of a slog.
very fun and well designed platformer
One of the best platformers you can play. An incredible sense of momentum, and you'll soon rush through the levels so fast you don't even know how you did it - not that it's easy though! It feels like an actual high-speed implementation of Aperture Tag. Often enough, the best solution is to not wait for any rotations at any point, but just go as fast as possible - it works and feels amazing.
It's the kind of short platformer that's able to introduce something new every level without ever overwhelming the player.
dis game is really cool and fun i love da idea and stuff
a lot of da first levels are really good and it was so much fun at da beginning, da platforming is challenging and interesting and i loved dat
but once you unlock da water and both inks it can be a bit difficult and confusing to use them especially since everything's fast paced and you might end up pressing da wrong button, dats what's been happening to me
it's a really good game but i wish i could remap da inks to da trigger buttons or something idk agshjdlkhfbwefh
a lot of da first levels are really good and it was so much fun at da beginning, da platforming is challenging and interesting and i loved dat
but once you unlock da water and both inks it can be a bit difficult and confusing to use them especially since everything's fast paced and you might end up pressing da wrong button, dats what's been happening to me
it's a really good game but i wish i could remap da inks to da trigger buttons or something idk agshjdlkhfbwefh
Amazing sense of movement, breezing through a level never felt this smooth. It also captures incredibly well the feeling of a 2010s flash game, or at least that of the game's improved version you'd buy on Steam. It even managed to make me yell "WTF!?!?!" during the parts I struggled with, so the nostalgia is on point!
Thought I'd enjoy this more than I would by the trailers, but the controls didn't feel good and the jumping was too floaty for a "tough as nails" platformer.
Pretty good game. Mechanics were fun, especially when levels had uninterrupted flow, which felt really good even when losing. Unfortunately often this wasn't the case and game was pretty frustrating.
Also it crashed at the very end of final level, so I decided not repeat it and watch ending on Youtube.
It wouldn't kill it to have few extra checkpoints, so players don't need to repeat the part they became very familiar with before trying the new challenge.
Also it crashed at the very end of final level, so I decided not repeat it and watch ending on Youtube.
It wouldn't kill it to have few extra checkpoints, so players don't need to repeat the part they became very familiar with before trying the new challenge.
It's Splasher!
Really good platformer. Gameplay is top notch but the lack of graphical diversity in the levels make it seem bland. Nonetheless, an amazing platformer with great and fluid movement.
Pretty fun and fast and fluid platformer shooter. Was having a great time but doesn’t have suspend mode for some reason on Xbox which usually is a deal breaker for me after doing one level too many times and progress restarting. Would like to go back one day. Maybe steam.
Solid 2D platformer
This games pretty fun. It reminds me of meat boy but a lot easier. Another thing about this game is that it’s so difficult to the point where some levels are no longer fun. The final boss is also really annoying and just stressful in general. 3/5
Very colorful platformer and pretty fun as well.
Super fun and well designed platformer. Highly recommended if you enjoy the floaty movement in Super Meat Boy.
In 2013, a little game called Rayman Legends was released, and a 7-year-old me (this is the part where you comment on how young I am) would fall in love with the game’s release. The sheer variety in the game’s art style, music, and levels had me dumbfounded. I would play the hell out of the game’s demo on my Xbox 360, and when I finally got my hands on the full release, my love grew for it even more, and it stands as both one of my favorite platformers, and one of my favorite games of all time; and is a wonderful showcase of what video games can accomplish. In 2017, a tiny game called splasher was released, although I wouldn’t hear about it until this year when a friend of mine mentioned it to me. They mentioned that the team who made Splasher comprised of the same staff that worked on Rayman Legends, which made it an immediate must-play for me. Sadly however, I ended up disappointed by Splasher.
One thing that you immediately notice is the artstyle of the game. While it does have some charm due to looking like a high-tier Newgrounds or Xbox live arcade game, it's hard to deny that it lacks polish. Loading screens not having any animation, assets sliding around during cutscenes like someone dragging around a .png in an image editor, and other little tidbits throughout the game rob it of its charming artstyle. Game performance is also pretty poor, with lag spikes happening every so often, and even a game crash on my end. What also doesn’t help Splasher’s case is the fact that it takes place all in one location, a laboratory. There is an attempt made to spice up the level variety, but in most cases it’s a basic aesthetic change that feels at odds with how the levels are laid out due to a lack of flow between these themes. The level layouts also force you to go back and forth between multiple points within the hub worlds, which can get grating real fast.
Ink is the main gimmick Splasher, letting you traverse the levels in more unique ways and help solve puzzles for collectibles. However, the ink is also something the game never really nails. Throughout the game, your collection grows as you collect the 3 main types of ink. The progression of giving you this ink overtime rather than giving you all the abilities at the start. This is a common motif in games that I’ve never really been a fan of, because it personally makes me feel as if I’m playing two thirds of the game with an incomplete moveset and makes the earlier levels less fun as a result. The game never uses the ink to its fullest potential either, since after a level or two after getting a new type of ink, it becomes apparent that the level design can only think of the same few scenarios to use the ink in. It comes off as very repetitive as a result, and I think changing the layouts of the levels slightly or allowing for more experimental ways to play around with the ink would have been for the better.
The gameplay is another very noticeable downside to Splasher, with its fast and slippery movement, a lack of control in the air in certain circumstances, and a jump that feels like its arc was cut in half. These issues wouldn’t be much of a bother if the game were made for it, but Splasher takes inspiration from the more modern design philosophy of platformers to be more difficult, like Super Meat Boy, Celeste, or The End Is Nigh and it doesn’t gel well with the level design, making the difficulty seem like an afterthought. I found multiple points where deaths felt cheap or even unfair, resulting in many restarts within big chunks of the levels. The number of times I had to slow down in the middle of a fast jump to land on a platform was absurd and ruined the overall flow of the game. However, the gameplay really starts to take a nosedive when these issues are combined with the ink mechanic. Aiming the ink uses the same stick that you use to move, with no option to stay still while doing so. This is used to create a ‘think on your feet’-type of pace to the game, but since you go so fast this causes more issues than anything else, and the amount of times I found my ink would just not aim correctly resulted in handfuls of deaths that really tested my patience.
It's not really fair to compare Splasher to the team’s previous work on Rayman Legends. Splasher has its own unique gameplay, design, and is overall going for something completely different but even disconnecting it from Rayman, it still feels disappointing. I hate being negative about something that very clearly has a lot of passionate people working on it, but Splasher had too many kinks that I think could be ironed out before it could have been something truly great. I hope the team is able to make a sequel to this game that can address these issues and turn it into something truly worthwhile (which I have hope for because I’ve heard the studio’s other game, Tinykin, is pretty good!), but for now, Splasher remains a disappointing first go for the studio due to its overall lack of polish, variety, and engaging gameplay.
(special thanks to my friend ConeCvltist who helped me out a ton making this review)
One thing that you immediately notice is the artstyle of the game. While it does have some charm due to looking like a high-tier Newgrounds or Xbox live arcade game, it's hard to deny that it lacks polish. Loading screens not having any animation, assets sliding around during cutscenes like someone dragging around a .png in an image editor, and other little tidbits throughout the game rob it of its charming artstyle. Game performance is also pretty poor, with lag spikes happening every so often, and even a game crash on my end. What also doesn’t help Splasher’s case is the fact that it takes place all in one location, a laboratory. There is an attempt made to spice up the level variety, but in most cases it’s a basic aesthetic change that feels at odds with how the levels are laid out due to a lack of flow between these themes. The level layouts also force you to go back and forth between multiple points within the hub worlds, which can get grating real fast.
Ink is the main gimmick Splasher, letting you traverse the levels in more unique ways and help solve puzzles for collectibles. However, the ink is also something the game never really nails. Throughout the game, your collection grows as you collect the 3 main types of ink. The progression of giving you this ink overtime rather than giving you all the abilities at the start. This is a common motif in games that I’ve never really been a fan of, because it personally makes me feel as if I’m playing two thirds of the game with an incomplete moveset and makes the earlier levels less fun as a result. The game never uses the ink to its fullest potential either, since after a level or two after getting a new type of ink, it becomes apparent that the level design can only think of the same few scenarios to use the ink in. It comes off as very repetitive as a result, and I think changing the layouts of the levels slightly or allowing for more experimental ways to play around with the ink would have been for the better.
The gameplay is another very noticeable downside to Splasher, with its fast and slippery movement, a lack of control in the air in certain circumstances, and a jump that feels like its arc was cut in half. These issues wouldn’t be much of a bother if the game were made for it, but Splasher takes inspiration from the more modern design philosophy of platformers to be more difficult, like Super Meat Boy, Celeste, or The End Is Nigh and it doesn’t gel well with the level design, making the difficulty seem like an afterthought. I found multiple points where deaths felt cheap or even unfair, resulting in many restarts within big chunks of the levels. The number of times I had to slow down in the middle of a fast jump to land on a platform was absurd and ruined the overall flow of the game. However, the gameplay really starts to take a nosedive when these issues are combined with the ink mechanic. Aiming the ink uses the same stick that you use to move, with no option to stay still while doing so. This is used to create a ‘think on your feet’-type of pace to the game, but since you go so fast this causes more issues than anything else, and the amount of times I found my ink would just not aim correctly resulted in handfuls of deaths that really tested my patience.
It's not really fair to compare Splasher to the team’s previous work on Rayman Legends. Splasher has its own unique gameplay, design, and is overall going for something completely different but even disconnecting it from Rayman, it still feels disappointing. I hate being negative about something that very clearly has a lot of passionate people working on it, but Splasher had too many kinks that I think could be ironed out before it could have been something truly great. I hope the team is able to make a sequel to this game that can address these issues and turn it into something truly worthwhile (which I have hope for because I’ve heard the studio’s other game, Tinykin, is pretty good!), but for now, Splasher remains a disappointing first go for the studio due to its overall lack of polish, variety, and engaging gameplay.
(special thanks to my friend ConeCvltist who helped me out a ton making this review)
I enjoyed about 18 of the 22 levels in this game. The 4 levels that I disliked were so frustrating that I have to give this a negative review. It's not like it was the final 4 levels that were difficult. These levels are strewn randomly across the 22 levels. I guess if you're not going to collect all the inkorp employees, it's not that bad but if you are, then good luck. Also, having to use the left thumbstick for both movement and aiming feels awful. Whoever came up with this control scheme needs to be fired.
Splasher is a pretty fun little indie platformer game that constantly finds new ways to reinvent it's few mechanics. It's fun and fast but suffers from minor control issues.
Instead of showing a new idea each level, it uses one you've likely seen before in an interesting and new way. It's tightly designed apart from some small instances.
The game would be excellent if it were not for a major control issue with the final "Ink" that the player gains. Most ink's in the game are able to be fired in 8 directions but this one is only able to be fired in 4 for some strange reason. From what I can tell this is intentional and this skew makes some sections feel unreliable to pull of consistently. Was playing on a keyboard so take this with a grain of salt I guess.
Overall, pretty good, kind of annoying at points.
Instead of showing a new idea each level, it uses one you've likely seen before in an interesting and new way. It's tightly designed apart from some small instances.
The game would be excellent if it were not for a major control issue with the final "Ink" that the player gains. Most ink's in the game are able to be fired in 8 directions but this one is only able to be fired in 4 for some strange reason. From what I can tell this is intentional and this skew makes some sections feel unreliable to pull of consistently. Was playing on a keyboard so take this with a grain of salt I guess.
Overall, pretty good, kind of annoying at points.
I'm 55% through, and I'm really loving this so far. Really tight, focused platformer. It's immediately evident while playing that the devs have a good understanding of the mechanics and that they know how to implement them in fun ways.
While the levels don't really vary too much visually (which is unfortunate), they all play very differently from one another, so it doesn't feel repetitive. It also has a really good difficulty curve, which is something I rarely see in games period, let alone indie titles like this. And even beyond that, the way it handles difficulty in the individual levels is great.
The levels themselves can be pretty challenging, but usually not to an extreme degree. If you want a real test of your skills, each level is riddled with optional challenges you can complete to obtain collectibles (in this case, workers to save) which I'm assuming are going to pay off in the end somehow. These optional bits can sometimes really get creative with the mechanics and use them interesting ways, and are also much harder than the non-optional parts.
I have very few complaints. I wish the levels were more visually distinct from one another (even though I do enjoy the way they look overall), and also a lack of boss fights. Not every platformer needs to have boss fights, of course, but I can't help but feel like they really could have made some interesting ones with the mechanics present in this game. Also it has a personal pet peeve of mine, where you're often asked to shoot diagonally, but there's no way to do this without moving in the direction you're facing, so it's supremely irritating in certain bits.
Those are all very minor gripes in the face of everything Splasher does right. I'm refraining from giving it a rating until I've completed it, but I'm having a ton of fun with this, and it has my glowing recommendation to anybody who enjoys platformers.
Update:
Finished it. Unfortunately, saving the workers does not appear to pay off in any meaningful way. You get an achievement for it and that's it. A bonus level or something would have been nice. Also the final level is actually pure misery, the kind where most of my deaths were due to mistiming something by a millisecond. Still, this was awesome. Really fun platformer with unique mechanics, and some excellent level design to go with it. Also seems like it would be really fun to try and speedrun, and it has built-in modes specifically for that. Definitely check this out if you're into platformers.
While the levels don't really vary too much visually (which is unfortunate), they all play very differently from one another, so it doesn't feel repetitive. It also has a really good difficulty curve, which is something I rarely see in games period, let alone indie titles like this. And even beyond that, the way it handles difficulty in the individual levels is great.
The levels themselves can be pretty challenging, but usually not to an extreme degree. If you want a real test of your skills, each level is riddled with optional challenges you can complete to obtain collectibles (in this case, workers to save) which I'm assuming are going to pay off in the end somehow. These optional bits can sometimes really get creative with the mechanics and use them interesting ways, and are also much harder than the non-optional parts.
I have very few complaints. I wish the levels were more visually distinct from one another (even though I do enjoy the way they look overall), and also a lack of boss fights. Not every platformer needs to have boss fights, of course, but I can't help but feel like they really could have made some interesting ones with the mechanics present in this game. Also it has a personal pet peeve of mine, where you're often asked to shoot diagonally, but there's no way to do this without moving in the direction you're facing, so it's supremely irritating in certain bits.
Those are all very minor gripes in the face of everything Splasher does right. I'm refraining from giving it a rating until I've completed it, but I'm having a ton of fun with this, and it has my glowing recommendation to anybody who enjoys platformers.
Update:
Finished it. Unfortunately, saving the workers does not appear to pay off in any meaningful way. You get an achievement for it and that's it. A bonus level or something would have been nice. Also the final level is actually pure misery, the kind where most of my deaths were due to mistiming something by a millisecond. Still, this was awesome. Really fun platformer with unique mechanics, and some excellent level design to go with it. Also seems like it would be really fun to try and speedrun, and it has built-in modes specifically for that. Definitely check this out if you're into platformers.
unfun
Simple but fun platformer with some solid mechanics and mostly good controls. Main gripe with the handling is the floaty nature of your jumps. It forces you to make these little mid-air auto corrections which can be finicky at times. Not a long game, but for its price tag, its short and sweet and doesn't overstay its welcome. A bit on the easy side, but the last few levels, and especially the final level, do ramp things up. Good soundtrack too. Solid game overall, would recommend.