[b]7/10[/b]
Cube rolling game in a cute, child-friendly presentation.
[b]What is it:[/b] A cube rolling game, you play as a cube trying to reach a target spot, but with a specific face. To make it more immersive, in the game you are a cute animal trapped in a jar, and to get out you need to place the lid face on top of the lid-removing tile.
The story: Koro and her siblings were playing nicely in the park when the mean witch Strawberry trapped all of them in jars. Can Koro the Cat escape and save her siblings?
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3300668247
The game is very cute, with well decorated environments with bright pastel colors, funny creatures and objects, plenty of animations and funny cutscenes. Ignoring the puzzles, this is perfect for a toddler, it reminded me of that Netflix show Buddi.
The puzzles are mostly easy too, but I think some of the levels get too hard for those that don’t excel at puzzle games. The game is split into 12 chapters of 10 levels each. Each chapter has 9 regular levels with only one cube rolling, and 1 special “rescue” level in which you simultaneously roll two cubes. The first chapter is just about rolling, and the next five chapters introduce one mechanic each: paired teleporters, slippery ice, buttons and the obstacles they toggle, fragile lilypads, and rotating carousels. These first six chapters are manageable, since they have one mechanic (other than basic rolling), but then comes a chapter with harder levels with each mechanic, then more and more complicated chapters combining two or more mechanics. And the last level in the last chapter requires moving all 6 characters and finding a way for all of them to end up on their target tile at once! Definitely not a toddler level.
The game does a lot of things well. The presentation is great, for those that like cute things and very decorated environments. The “story” keeps young players engaged. The levels are decent, easy but not boring.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3300668584
But a lot of things could be improved: undo, the level select, the long animations, the totally basic story, and slightly unresponsive controls. There is no undo, and it would really be useful, given that moving back to the previous state doesn’t work in levels with more than the basic rolling mechanism. The problem with the level select is that it's a 3-levels-deep structure. First you select the character to play with, then one of the worlds available to that character, then the actual level from that world. There is no easy way to just play the level you were at last time, when you restart the game you have to go there yourself. I would add a Continue button on the intro screen, separate from the Level Select button, and I would separate the character selection from the level selection. There are “pretty” animations between levels, which is cute for kids, but I’m very impatient and I’d like to be able to skip them faster. It takes too long for the “press to skip” button to show up and work. For such a simple game, loading levels takes too long. It’s cute that there is a story, but it’s very nonsensical and poorly conveyed. After every chapter, the characters play a bit, as much as they can as blobs with no limbs, which is mostly jumping around, then zoom in on the witch, and everybody runs down. Colorful blobs moving on the screen is enough for toddlers, but this game isn’t for toddlers. Put a bit more effort into the story if you want to have one. Plus, controls are a bit finicky, there is no key repeat and no input caching, and with a thumbstick on a controller sometimes it does move as long as I keep it pressed, sometimes it stops after every move, and I don’t know why it behaves differently.
It might be a nice relaxing game for others, but personally I didn’t really enjoy it.
[b]How hard is it:[/b] Mostly easy, but with some moderate levels every now and then, and a challenging final level.
[b]How long is it:[/b] 120 levels, 3-6 hours, must be done in order, no skipping.
[b]Level design:[/b] OK, nothing surprising, but the levels aren’t boring either.
[b]Quality:[/b] Not bad, but could be improved. No undo. Selecting a level requires too many steps, and there’s no Continue on the start screen. Works with keyboard and controllers, but not configurable. A few audio and video settings. Cloud saving is supposed to be implemented, but it doesn’t work. Good progress achievements. It’s sluggish on an integrated GPU, and the controls and all the animations are slowing me down.
[b]Worth the price:[/b] If you’re not buying it to share with some children, wait for a discount.
[b]Most positive aspect for me:[/b] Good mechanics.
[b]Most negative aspect for me:[/b] No undo.
[b]What would make it better:[/b] Undo. Key repeat and input caching. Add support for multiple profiles. Add access to the settings from the pause menu. High resolution application icon. Fix cloud saving. Simplify the level selection. Key remapping. Graphics quality settings for slower systems. Improve the level loading time.
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