Pond Scum: A Gothic Swamp Tale

[h1]Experienced on the Meta Quest 3[/h1] You can view my gameplay & early impressions here: https://youtu.be/Z3BmSTYWvM0 This is a god-view arcade platformer for VR. While it has some similarity to Moss, it is a completely different game in a different sub-genre. While Moss was narrative-driven platformer and had a casual difficulty curve, this is pure classic arcade difficulty. You will die and die often. It does have a little bit of a story, but it's mostly just level after level where the difficulty ramps up. If you thought Moss was too easy, then this may be the game for you. If you thought Moss was challenging, this is not the game for you. You can jump and roll the little guy you're controlling (a caiman?) in third person, but you also push buttons in your own first person view. You will activate platforms and what not so your guy can get across the many dangers. Dark levels, traps everywhere, moving platforms, & lava going higher and higher from the ground floor are just some of the dangers. Game is running on the Unity Engine. On my RTX 3080, I was getting a steady 72 fps. I did not experience any serious issues or bugs. There is no locomotion or turning, you basically have your one camera view of the diorama to move your guy around. [b]Rate ?/10.[/b] [quote]Please note: I received a free Steam key through the Steam Curator Connect program. If you enjoyed my review, please consider joining my Steam Curator group [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Oculus_WMR]Oculus Rift Reviews.[/url][/quote]

Super neat indie platformer with a ton of charm! World and character designs are unique with dark and spacey vibes - I love the music in particular. The kind of VR game I wish more developers made tbh. Def give this one a try if you have VR!

Intense platforming. Not quite rage inducing but hard enough that it’s very satisfying when you beat a level. Won’t give you motion sickness which is a big win for showing friends and family who can’t stomach VR lol

Pond Scum: A Gothic Swamp Tale is a paid VR platforming game. It worked on my Index and HTC Vive and Meta Quest 3 system, looked ok, sounded ok, played ok. Very hard. Maybe buy, if you like platforming games in VR. I got a free key for this from the Steam Curator program. [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/23133713-VIVE-VR/]ViVE VR curator group[/url]

Has an interesting retro look that pulls you in with cute characters. The music was great, and motivates you through the starting steep difficulty curve. It's a funky fun game i can see myself returning to when i want a quick VR session.

This game is insane! Just saw it appear in recommendations and was visually appealing, so I had to get it. So much fun and the levels are crazy! Really interesting world they have created here. Reminds me of old school nintendo but in VR! Certainly recommend.

I love snappy!

Gameplay(roughly first half of the game): https://youtu.be/ysM5449kCLI Before I start the review I just wanted to say huge kudos to the developers, as they were super quick to fix the issue I had with Air Link not working for me. It's a wonderful level of support that is always amazing to see. Maaaaaaaaan. Puzzle games and me. Name a more lopsided duo. You can't. They go together like pickles and ice cream. Yet, I absolutely adore Pond Scum. The last VR Platformer I played and enjoyed was MOSS, and this oozes so much more charm. There's a whimsical story, lots of levels, and mostly perfect positioning of the camera. You'll move your little alligator bro, Snappy, around the level pressing buttons, avoiding cat gecko or bear gecko things, traps, and occasionally rising fluid levels of acid or lava. The platforming is very responsive, easy to pick up, and very rarely frustrating. All the bad things in the level are one hit kills which can be slightly frustrating as it'll undo any buttons you've pressed. Graphically it looks good, though there are some scenes that might be difficult for people that suffer from color blindness. Specifically a few levels where you have a red liquid you're over and enemies shooting red bullets. I'm not color blind, but those colors blend together really well which made it difficult to distinguish the two. I highly recommend this, as it was the best time I've had after putting on my headset in awhile.