o---o

Quick Score: 4/5 Notes: It's a shame this game got kind of killed by 3 early negative reviews. It's not bad at all and its relatively well made and unique. The negative reviews complaining about the game being too difficult are skill issuing hard. The game is very mildly challenging at worst. My only real complaints would be that the overall pacing and difficulty scaling of the game isnt very smooth. Even towards the end of the game, there are just very long bits of levels that are just not as hard as they should be, and then just very sharp difficulty spike checkpoints placed seemingly randomly. The 2 bosses in the game are the most annoying parts of the game by far.

o---o is a unique arcade-style precision platformer that utilizes a very intriguing baseline mechanic in its brain-twisting linear rotation movement controlled by a singular button, but is withheld by poor and non-complementary level design that demands uncanny execution, consistency, and patience that will cater to a very limited audience. Difficult video games usually have satisfying payoffs once one attains mastery of the gameplay mechanics, but this game brews frustration and anguish over the deliberately crude hazard and enemy cycles, made worse when coupled with an unforgiving implementation of checkpoints and lives. The game in its current state demands practice that resembles that of a speedrunner's regimen, where levels must be started over from the beginning once all lives are lost, regardless of the checkpoint progress within that level. With the plethora of "knowledge checks" around corners in several levels, and the lack of a practice or training mode in which to improve in the game mechanics or nail these "knowledge check" sections, it is an unfulfilling, tedious, and eventually fatiguing process to learn and clear a level. There were even a few instances where it was implied by the game that the center circle had landed in a safe spot outside of the bounds of a clock, but moments later after landing, it still triggered a death. For that matter, the clocks and spinning blades are among the most exceptionally frustrating hazards/enemies in the game, and both are introduced rather early into the game. Namely, as the clock hands are about to rotate, they telegraph themselves by an abrupt backwards snap before rotating forward, along with which its collision box/hitbox moves as well. This seemingly exists to make the game more difficult for difficulty's sake, and is not very intuitive or profound. As for the spinning blades, since their durability is very high, and they infinitely/semi-randomly respawn on an unpredictable cycle (and later on even shoot pre-aimed projectiles!), it makes them feel like a proxy for a timer, as if to say, "move fast or else", as opposed to "clear these enemies and move thoughtfully". Also, the breakable walls in the game are unrelenting, in that they are often times placed in tight spaces guarded by approaching hazards or enemies, and while the remaining durability persists between deaths, it feels like dying a few times while destroying them is inevitable. This kind of level design does not do well to prop up the basic gameplay. As such, while the core mechanic of the game is compelling and has lots of potential, the level design needs to succeed at supporting the foundation, and the game presently does not accomplish this. Not only could the level design use more polish at bring out the fullness of the basic movement, but also the lack of a proper options menu for adjusting the music/sound volume, the screen resolution, the singular button of control, and the like unfortunately reflects poorly on the experience of playing the game overall. Regarding the aesthetic and presentation of the game, I will commend the developer for achieving a distinctly appealing style that kept me immersed in the mysterious world that [b]o---o[/b] exists in. It's cool that the beats of measure of the music align with the period of [b]o---o[/b]'s rotation. The game's environment leads to its being self-explanatory, not requiring explicit tutorials, and concepts are onboarded at a steady pace over the course of the levels. If the player is content with the frustrations that come with not only learning a tricky gimmick, but also engaging with quarter-muncher-esque obstacles scattered across the levels, in a manner that essentially asks you to learn like a speedrunner, then this game might be of interest. However, there are several other arcade-style games out there of comparable difficulty that can provide more fulfillment for mastering the mechanics than this game.