Lab Chaos

A really fun puzzle platformer with cute art.

Lab Chaos is a fast paced platform puzzler, taking place in, somewhat unsurprisingly, a lab. You’re in control of a cute little blob of green goo (who’s named Fleck) trying to find its way to the exit portal on each stage. Though you have the opportunity to win a star for beating each stage in a target time, as well as another for collecting all of the atomic symbols (‘skill atoms’) and blue crystals, on each stage, it’s perfectly acceptable to simply get to the exit in order to move on to the next stage. With 37 stages currently on offer – and more tantalisingly teased with a locked second world – there’s an awful lot of content in Lab Chaos. Getting three stars, even on the earliest levels, is no walk in the park – there are some incredibly clever, very deviously designed platforming challenges throughout. Much of your success in progressing involves changing Fleck into different materials, in order to interact with various elements in the lab. Becoming metal in order to utilise the power of electromagnets, for example – which throw you around the level in a satisfying, albeit sometimes appropriately chaotic, way. From a technical standpoint, Lab Chaos is fairly basic – it’s not a surprise that it’s a port of a mobile title – but its visuals and certainly it’s soundtrack do have a definite charm. From a graphical point of view, it’s also clear at all times what you need to do in order to progress, even when that’s easier said than done! Lab Chaos is also Steam Deck compatible and has controller support, which removes one of the biggest issues I had with the original mobile version of the game. It’s also a really good game to play on the move or away from your TV or monitor; the smaller screen of the Steam Deck and its controls suit Lab Chaos very well indeed. Though the store page does mention that it’s suitable for casual as well as hardcore players, even getting to the exit can require some serious skill once you hit the later levels. Which means that I’d definitely be leaning more towards Lab Chaos being an experience that doesn’t have to be entirely hardcore – you aren’t forced to get all three stars on each level, for example, which is definitely a massive challenge – but it’s not something I could recommend to gamers who prefer a more laid back platforming experience. Ultimately, it’s fantastic to see Lab Chaos making the jump from mobile to Steam. Even though it’s not been upgraded in any significant way from a technical point of view, the gameplay was always where Lab Chaos shone – and that remains the case with the Steam port. If you’re looking for a tough – but fair, it must be stressed – platforming challenge with a wealth of great ideas and borderline sadistic, physics-based level design, Lab Chaos may just be the game for you.