[h1]Here Comes Niko![/h1]
[h2]Capitalist Croakers Commodify Companionship for Cold Hard Cash[/h2]
[h2]-Overview:[/h2]
Here Comes Niko! is a cozy collectathon platformer about Niko, a young adult who runs away from home. Looking for a job, they land an interview as a "Professional Friend" under the supervision of Pepper, a tie wearing frog. The player must explore a variety of islands, helping out and befriending the characters in exchange for money. Along the way, you learn more of Niko's past, and discover why they ran away in the first place.
[h2]-The Good:[/h2]
[h3]-The Artstyle:[/h3]
I love the art direction in this game, as it works to envelop the player in a cozy, friendly atmosphere. The beautiful pastel and almost desaturated color scheme contrasted with the brightness of everything makes each locale feel cheerful and wonderous. The character designs are top notch as well, with each character looking and feeling distinct, contributing to the feeling of the world being alive. Everything works in tandem to make the player feel relaxed and happy.
[h3]-The Writing:[/h3]
While a tad hit or miss for some people, I really enjoyed the writing of this game. There are plenty of meta game design jokes that don't feel too fourth wall break-y, and they got a hearty chuckle out of me on more than one occasion. The characters all have distinct personalities, and while some have many repeating lines, each new critter I encountered felt alive and unique.
[h3]-The Task Variety:[/h3]
The game does a wonderful job at throwing a variety of unique challenges at the player, causing the core systems to never become dull. The platforming is interspliced with simple puzzles and little minigames, which added some much needed variety to an otherwise simple game.
[h2]-The Bad:[/h2]
[h3]-The Bugs:[/h3]
I always provide some leniency to indie games, as I know bug fixing is difficult. I ran into a variety of bugs that seriously hampered my experience, and I just can't ignore that. The handsome frog achievement, despite being listed as fixed in the patch notes, still fails to trigger sometimes. If you dive onto any physics object, there is a very good chance you are launched a decent distance in a random direction. It's not a huge deal, but when you're trying to move around, and all of a sudden you're launched the opposite direction you were headed, it can be irritating. The movement system also would bug out from time to time, launching me a random distance with every wall jump. The most egregious bug in my opinion, happened in the forest area. I believe it had something to do with the shaders, as whenever the cave shaders would load, some foliage and all of the tree trunks on the island would become invisible. In a platforming game such as this, nothing feels worse than slamming your head into an invisible tree that you didn't know was there, messing up your movement. Not being able to see the trees caused me to look back on this level with frustration, not the fondness it deserves.
[h3]-The Useless Collectables:[/h3]
Throughout the game, there are a variety of different things to collect. This would be seen as a good thing in a collectathon, but they serve very little use. Each level has a different type of bug for the player to collect, but the only use for them is trading thirty of them to an NPC for a coin. You can only do this once per level, mind you, so once the player has collected thirty bugs, there is no use to collecting more. Similarly, players can find cassettes hidden around the map. The only purpose of these tapes is to hand in to one of two NPCs in exchange for a coin. Both NPCs take five tapes for a single coin, and that begs the question: why do we need two separate characters that serve the exact same purpose? Cutting one and requiring 10 tapes per coin would make far more sense. There are also apples strewn about each level, and they are the most ridiculous collectable of the three. [spoiler]The only purpose they serve is to be used as a currency to unlock and use a movement ability given to the player in the last level. As a result, they are completely and utterly worthless throughout the entire game.[/spoiler] The player has a Tamagotchi snail from the beginning of the game, and you can buy cosmetics for it with money earned by moving around. Why not replace that currency with the apples? Or better yet, allow them to be used on small player cosmetics, like changing the color of your clothes. These issues cause collectables in this collectathon to feel pointless, never doing anything but facilitating the grind for more coins.
[h3]-The Price Tag:[/h3]
While not an issue with the game itself, this game being 25 dollars is ridiculous. I was able to 100% it in a little over five hours. With how much reused content is present, and the short runtime, I'd price this closer to ten bucks.
[h3]-Long. Volley.[/h3]
I'm not going to go into massive detail, but whoever thought up long volley needs to go to like, super jail.
[h2]-The... Confused?:[/h2]
[h3]-The Asset Reuse:[/h3]
I am of two minds about the reuse of assets. On one hand, it is an indie game, and reusing assets allows for more content at a lower cost. The reused props and whatnot are actually done quite well! I would see assets from other level be reused in ways where they felt natural and unassuming, and I'm quite impressed with how well it was done! On the other hand however, there was no reason to reuse almost every quest in every location. Throughout the game, you can find contact lists. These allow for characters you have met before to show up on previous islands with more quests. In a vacuum, this is great, but it's way overdone. Each character will show up on every island, and they always have the same type of quest. Because of this, I started to become really tired of running into the same people, and doing the same thing over and over again. Here Comes Niko! has a major problem with "Less is More". It's like being given one cake, versus ten. with one, you can enjoy it, and be hungry for more. If you have to eat ten, you're going to get tired of it very fast, and it'll sully the memory of the first few as well. It feels like nothing more than padding out the runtime of the game with mindless tasks you've completed before.
[h3]-The Tonal Whiplash:[/h3]
The story of this game is handled incredibly strangely. I did enjoy the darker, sadder story about Niko's past, but it was harshly contrasted by the rest of the game. You'll go from helping a little girl plant flowers and tying yourself to a fisherman's pole to act as a fishing hook, to hearing about [spoiler]how Niko escaped their abusive home and receiving voicemails from your mother about finding a doctor that can "fix" you[/spoiler]. None of these darker subjects are brought up with other NPCs, which causes the story and tone of the game to feel wildly inconsistent. Independently I love both of these ideas, but they are not written into the game very well. It feels like Niko's past was slapped onto the game last minute as nothing more than a reason for Niko to be out here.
[h2]-Closing Remarks:[/h2]
Here Comes Niko! is a strange game when I look back at it. The best description I could give it is a rough, uncut gem covered in itching powder. I know for a fact that there is something amazing in here, as despite my criticisms, I enjoyed my time with the game. This good game however, has many, many small issues, which makes me feel conflicted. It's games like these that make me wish for a mixed review option. While there certainly is something worth playing in here, I cannot in good faith advise someone pay 25 dollars for this game. Wait until it goes on sale, at least.
