Brilliant conceptually, but unfortunately it falls a little short gameplay wise. It's absolutely genius to have an open-ended 3D hub world for linear 2D levels, but these 3D areas end up feeling pretty boring due to how non-interactive they are- it'd go a long way if the spark ability had any uses outside of just entering levels. The 2D levels aren't perfect either. They start off really strong with some great, textbook examples of introducing and expanding on new mechanics in a short timespan, but they quickly start over-relying on Very Special sections that completely veer off from the established gameplay. Of course, it's a comedy game, so sections like these are expected, even welcome, but frankly there's not enough of the "normal" game to justify how many "weird" sections there are. Non-sequiturs that deviate harshly from the norm are only meaningful when it doesn't feel like most of the game is non-sequiturs- I think I played two levels in a row where all I had to do to win was talk to several NPCs.

It's a game that has a lot to say story wise, and the story is generally well integrated with the gameplay, aside from when it matters the most. There's one sequence about halfway through that sticks out in this regard- it's a crucial and genuinely pretty powerful story beat that gets told almost entirely through a really length sequence of text boxes. In this way the story's pretty representative of the game as a whole: a fantastic vision that wasn't able to end up becoming a fantastic final product.

Reviewed on Apr 06, 2021


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