Ever play Mario and Wario? Well, imagine that-- but awesome.
Pompom is an adorable SNES throwback platformer. That is, if it were made for the SNES mouse accessory and played more like a puzzle game where you guide the hamster (?) through levels with your power to create, destroy, and otherwise interact with the environment. It's quite a fun time, and the game does a good job of keeping a player on their toes by changing up the gimmicks while evolving the base gameplay. Many of the things introduced are fun to design around-- but since every level has something new, Pompom runs the risk of feeling unrefined at times. Even so, the game gives new perspective on platformers in general. Bopping a simple boss 3 times on the head is criticized in Mario entries, but it becomes far more interesting when you can't control the character directly.
Besides from the gameplay, I feel mixed on the games' aesthetics. While I appreciate how faithful it stays to the early-mid SNES feel, especially in the case of the music (which is pretty good), it doesn't... look very good. Not to say the graphics are bad, but they could be a lot better. It doesn't particularly help that Pompom can be pretty derivative at times, graphically wearing it's inspirations a little too much on my sleeve for comfort. Seriously, they don't all have to look like Mario World tiles.
Ultimately, I loved the game, and you should definitely look into it if you want a mechanically solid puzzle platformer to figure out, especially if you go for the 100%. If you have a real SNES mouse, you're obligated to use it, too.
Pompom is an adorable SNES throwback platformer. That is, if it were made for the SNES mouse accessory and played more like a puzzle game where you guide the hamster (?) through levels with your power to create, destroy, and otherwise interact with the environment. It's quite a fun time, and the game does a good job of keeping a player on their toes by changing up the gimmicks while evolving the base gameplay. Many of the things introduced are fun to design around-- but since every level has something new, Pompom runs the risk of feeling unrefined at times. Even so, the game gives new perspective on platformers in general. Bopping a simple boss 3 times on the head is criticized in Mario entries, but it becomes far more interesting when you can't control the character directly.
Besides from the gameplay, I feel mixed on the games' aesthetics. While I appreciate how faithful it stays to the early-mid SNES feel, especially in the case of the music (which is pretty good), it doesn't... look very good. Not to say the graphics are bad, but they could be a lot better. It doesn't particularly help that Pompom can be pretty derivative at times, graphically wearing it's inspirations a little too much on my sleeve for comfort. Seriously, they don't all have to look like Mario World tiles.
Ultimately, I loved the game, and you should definitely look into it if you want a mechanically solid puzzle platformer to figure out, especially if you go for the 100%. If you have a real SNES mouse, you're obligated to use it, too.