A joyous little indie game reminiscent of NES Zelda and early PC games that emphasized exploration and building knowledge of the world through repeated trials and persistence. At only about 2 hours in length, you'll run through the death cycle about 100-odd times. Each time you discover something new or you find a new way to get past an obstacle after giving it several attempts feels like a brilliant "a-ha!" moment that propels your understanding of the game forward. The only disappointment with the game is that it fails to really delve deep into the 60-second aspect of the game. There's very little side content or interesting areas of the world to explore, and as the world is "saved" after each death, persistent changes such as solved puzzles form permanent changes to the world. This takes on a somewhat "roguelite" identity as opposed to the "roguelike" design that you would expect from this kind of game. Joseph Anderson discusses this more in his essay on the game, which I would recommend. Ultimately it's a short and charming little game that has a fantastic elevator pitch, but doesn't elaborate or develop that pitch too much. It's certainly worth playing, particularly with the small price tag ($5 on sale!).

Reviewed on Oct 03, 2020


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