Thinking about how the typical precise platformer plays here, one may be surprised to think of Eggy as one seeing how it describes itself as an 'artillery platformer' of the sorts, perhaps reminding some of Golfing Over It (for those who have played it anyhow, since one hits a golf ball in a very similar manner) as the goal of Eggy is simply to find the location of 'mom' by means of launching the idle egg to various platforms, both above and across the side (alongside the occasional careful dip downwards!) to ensure the safety of the egg as it perilously leaps from one spot to the next in order to reach the safety of what looks akin to a bird's nest that acts as this game's 'checkpoint' system.
One thing I should note right off the bat is that these nests are a little unique for what some would deem as a 'precise platformer' that aims to be challenging for it's intended audience, seeing as these act more akin to teleportation spots that activate once the player has reached them as, at any point during gameplay, they can go back and forth to any of the nests they have reached up to that point.
I would argue that this is a rather pointless addition, considering that the whole point of these sorts of games is to progress further higher and beyond to reach your goal rather than to explore like you would in a typical adventure/platforming game, however this ties into an interesting gimmick for a precise platformer that, whilst I won't spoil here, will be made quite evident to you by the time you've completed the fifth area of the game as the other 'artefacts' are much more well-hidden and will encourage the exploration of previous areas in order to proceed further.
Whether players will like this concept or not is not for me to judge, however I will say that this is the sort of idea that I personally feel would have worked better for the unlocking of an alternative, more daunting and arduous, path for the 'kaizo' fans out there that truly want to have their egg-flinging skills tested to it's limits rather than blocking off progression towards the intended path alongside adding further hidden artefacts towards and right at the end of the game to make further use of the nests once you've reached the 'middle point' of sorts.
I say 'middle point' in apostrophes as, whilst there is technically only seven areas in the entire game, it certainly feels like the final two make up for about roughly 50% or potentially even more of the gameplay time as players early on will breeze through the first three areas without much fuss, however the fourth area ramps up the difficulty a couple of notches by extending the areas themselves between checkpoints considerably as well as adding more to them overall (plus the aforementioned bump in difficulty that tests you with new obstacles and other gameplay mechanics) and the fifth area only continues this trend, however it is the last two that will be giving you some serious headaches if you went into this thinking it would be nothing more than a quirky casual platformer game.
Again, without touching upon spoilers, the sixth area has you dealing with various teleportation and physics-based obstacles that act as a fairly-strong barrier for those who have yet to learn how to aim their egg properly and react to constantly-changing obstacles on the go with a fair degree of precision, however it is the seventh and last area that will truly be hellish for most players as nests up until this point have acted as a good and reliable checkpoint for progress but, considering the nature of this last area's environment, no such nests are to be found throughout the ENTIRETY of the last stretch before the end of the game!
Given how the difficulty of such games tends to scale gradually upwards the higher up you progress, it should be a given that you'll be facing bigger challenges as your skill with the game's platforming mechanics is tested further and further, however I do feel like the final area may be a gap too big for some to cross over (perhaps this would have been a fitting mid-tier area for that 'secret path', where nests are few and far between?) and would explain why the achievement between reaching the sixth area and completing the game is so considerably different as it were.
As far as other criticisms go, although I won't bash the game for not allowing you to fling the egg again mid-flight like you can in Golfing Over It, (or Mighty Fling for that matter, another neat precise platforming indie based on a similar premise!) it can be quite frustrating to deal with some of the more 'curvy' or unstable platforms, by which I mean sometimes it won't let you fling if you hit the corner at specific angles as you watch the egg stumble off and fall down below to most likely be cracked and respawn at a nest, however other times you can be on a surface that is at such a steep angle that it should be impossible to get it to fling upwards again, yet it still manages to do it if you time it right (and seemingly some parts of the last area demand that you pull this off!) so it's a little inconsistent when dealing with what feels like whether the game will allow you to make a split-second crucial shot at specific moments or not.
Also, although it is nice that completing the game once does give you a cosmetic reward similar to that of Getting Over It's, [spoiler]I feel that the map being flipped over simply to act as a 'post-game' challenge is a tad lazy and, although challenging in some surprising ways, doesn't feel as good to play as it does on a fresh new map or even the same one but adding new parts to it or modifying existing ones to make the easy parts more challenging and the already-hard obstacles a complete nightmare to attempt![/spoiler]
But yes, to conclude this review of Eggy here, I will say that I had a fairly decent time with it all around, even if I felt some aspects of this 'artillery' platformer could have been executed better, and would generally recommend the full price if you're the type of gamer that is looking for a good challenge set within a unique premise, however do expect some frustrations later on where difficulty spikes are concerned and only attempt to complete all the achievements if you are fully prepared for it!
TLDR Version:
• Artillery-based platformer that tasks you with safely navigating an egg to it's mother through various colourful areas filled with plenty of obstacles and dangers (+)
• A wide variety of platforming challenges that gradually escalate in length and difficulty the further you progress (+)
• Eggy takes a more casual focus with 'nests' acting as reliable checkpoints that you can spawn and teleport between whenever you fall down too far and break (+)
• Controlling an egg-shaped object for flinging across platforms takes a little getting used to, but can be used for careful positioning and other tricks once mastered (+)
• Sometimes you are unable to fling the egg when landing on corners yet can also fling at unusually high angles, leading to some frustration with later platforming challenges that are tight with time and demand quick reflexes (-)
• The scale of Eggy's difficulty is relatively fair for the first five areas, however the sixth area can be quite finicky due to the aforementioned problems above and the final area's lack of nests can prove frustrating to overcome (-)
• There is no secret or alternative path for future completions that would have allowed expert players to engage in their own 'kaizo' difficulty fun with very few nests whilst more casual players took a somewhat more gentle path overall (-)
• [spoiler]The 'post-game' challenge after beating Eggy for the first time is simply the map being flipped upside-down instead of areas being rebuilt or modified to provide additional challenges (-)[/spoiler]
