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[h1]Overall Rating - Seriously Flawed ★★☆☆☆[/h1]
[h1]First Impressions[/h1]
I've had HackyZack (HZ) in my library since 2017, when it came in a monthly Humble Bundle. Interestingly, many of my Steam friends have the title, and have played it for more than a few hours. What this means, I've no idea, but there's only one way to find out. Aside from asking them of course, why would I do that? Not when I can just play HZ for myself.
[h1]Gameplay[/h1]
There are two modes, both of which have six worlds, made up of ten stages. In Goal Mode, your objective is to kick the ball into the goal, resembled by a yellow wall. It's a reasonably sized target to aim for, instead of a pinpoint small mark you have to hit. Within each stage, there's an optional sticker that can be collected. However, you have to kick the ball into it, and still beat the stage, which isn't that easy when the sticker is in a treacherous location. Collecting these are the only way to unlock stages in Target Mode though.
Like the name suggests, Target Mode has a handful of targets to hit, and you beat it as soon as the ball breaks the last target. You can earn three stars for each level, which is centered solely around clear speed. Although unlocked from playing Goal Mode, the stages in Target Mode aren't reflections of the places you earned them from. There's really no correlation between the two, aside from the overall theme of that world. For example, the second world introduces green switches, which activate or turn off platforms for a short duration, but how they're arranged on the stage differs for each mode.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3142069804
[h1]Controls[/h1]
The controls are something I'd consider an unfortunate design choice. After all, you have to constantly kick the ball around each stage, keeping both it and the character safe, and where the ball goes is based on which direction your character is facing. This is a problem because the requirements of moving the character can be at odds with where you want the ball. For example, while trying to wall jump, zig-zagging as you climb upward, you can be facing one of four or five directions at any moment, and have to keep kicking the ball the right way each time. It's a very difficult juggling act, whereas if you could just use the right analog stick to aim and kick in tandem, that'd resolve this whole mess.
[h1]Story[/h1]
When you start a new world, a word with negative connotation fills up the entire screen before fading away. It's such an odd tone for a platformer centered around a casual hobby, and somewhat comes across like an insult. After all, if I made a game based on stamp-collecting, then tied it to words like loneliness or depression, I believe most people would reasonably conclude that's what I think of those enthusiasts, “You don't have to insult them when you're the one who made stamp-collecting the focus of your game.” Otherwise though, there's no cutscenes or dialogue, so this is the closest thing to a story or message that HZ has.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3142070371
[h1]Visuals[/h1]
Hacky sack was a popular trend at one point, and from what I know, it seemed to be connected with college students. However, I don't think it ever reached the heights of ultimate Frisbee. My point for this is that there was a culture to the hobby, but not enough of one that there's a widely recognized aesthetic or outfit, “You can tell those people are serious sackers.” Either way, this game's appearance doesn't really scream hacky sack to me.
Part of that might be because, depending on the world and layout, quite a few stages and backgrounds look abstract. A plain blue screen isn't too distracting, but the one with a handful of blinking eyes might catch your attention. Maybe they're going for the radical angle? Another aspect that doesn't necessarily resonate with hacky sack is the walls being arranged in ways more fitting for parkour than anything else. Lastly, I think the main character looks like a soccer player.
[h1]Sound Design[/h1]
Each of the worlds has one song associated with it, and if the stages could more easily be beaten quickly, I think that'd be perfectly fine. However, with the actual playtime necessary for most people trying HZ, it might have been helpful to add a few more. On the positive side, despite their negative titles, the music is vibrant and catchy. Admittedly, the sounds made by the character while platforming is a bit distracting, especially with the music not being louder to overpower it, but it also makes perfect sense that Zack would keep grunting with everything he's doing. It can't be easy leaping around while kicking a ball the same size as your body.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3142070059
[h1]Pros[/h1]
🌟 If you're stuck on a specific stage, you can jump around and play other ones in the world. However, to get to the next world, you have to beat all the other stages first.
🌟 Conceptually, I really like what HZ was going for, as the first few levels were pretty fun to play through. It had some challenge, but was manageable.
[h1]Cons[/h1]
❌ You have too many things to focus on at any given time. Getting your character into the right place, making accurate kicks to put the ball where it needs to be, which platforms will interact with what, etc.
❌ The difficulty spike from world 1 onward is too steep, “Alright, I think I've got the idea. That wasn't too bad. Looks like I spoke too soon.”
[h1]Tips[/h1]
🔍 I believe each stage is set up like a golf course, in that if you approach it in a specific way, you'll have an easier time with it. That's my theory at least. Putting it into practice is another matter.
🔍 How far the ball travels when you kick it will always be the same. There's no power gauge to bear in mind, and momentum isn't a factor to the strength of your kicks.
[h1]Final Thoughts[/h1]
Even though the controls weren't ideal, if the stages weren't so hard to navigate, I think more people would have enjoyed playing HZ. It's a novel concept for a platforming game, and could have made for an interesting challenge, juggling an object while carefully moving around. When the difficulty escalates so rapidly though, with most of the challenge coming from just controlling the character and ball, it gets frustrating quickly.
Perhaps I'm dodging the buck, but I don't feel like failure stems solely from my mistakes or lack of practice. Instead, I attribute it to the wonky control scheme. Why would I take responsibility if you're handing me the wrong tool for the job? You wouldn't use a power drill to bang nails into 2x4s. I wouldn't recommend HZ because despite my experience with platformers, my patience with this title runs out rapidly.
[table]
[tr]
[th]PC Specs[/th]
[th]Performance[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Ryzen 2700
RTX 2070
16GB RAM
ADATA SSD
1920x1080
[/td]
[td]The game ran without incident on default settings.
💖 - HZ is healthy
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
