Raster

[b]4/10[/b] Puzzle platformer in which you alter the environment using various image manipulation brushes, but focused more on precise mouse control than logic. Would be good if it wasn't so buggy. [b]What is it:[/b] A puzzle platformer in which you need to get a bunny across the screen and out through the right edge by hopping across. You “hop” using a slingshot mechanic, click and drag away from the direction you want to move in, like in Angry Birds. Each hop isn't very powerful, and you get an almost exact preview of the path the bunny will take. But there are obstacles in your way, mountains too tall or gaps too wide to jump over, or lava, or lasers. To help you pass these obstacles, you can use an altering move reminiscent of raster image manipulation brushes, hence the name of the game. Each “world” has a special mechanic, like twirl, invert, squeeze, bulge, push, clone and others, so you have to figure out how to deform the level to build a path to squeeze through. And the last level in each world is different, the goal is to clear the area around a portal to activate it, then jump through it. I liked the general idea of the game, but the implementation is not yet good enough to recommend it. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3368947309 What works: cool, unique concept, although the concept of manipulating the level has been done before, in games like [i]Snapshot[/i] or [i]Viewfinder[/i]. Interesting take on the available tools. Many worlds and many puzzles, including entirely different worlds like one in which you swim instead of hop, and a good difficulty curve in each world, from easy tutorials to tough challenges. A leaderboard. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3368947366 What doesn’t work: Anything at all on my desktop, I don’t know if it's the aspect ratio, graphics card or something else, but trying to open any level gets stuck in a loop with the rabbit dying because the actual floor fails to load. I managed to play it on the Steam Deck. It is very GPU/CPU intensive, the Steam Deck sounds like an airplane trying to take off when playing this 2D game. When applying a transformation, normally it lets me work on it for as long as I want, but very often it somehow thinks I’m done and kicks me out of editing. Not optimized at all for the Deck or a controller in general, it assumes mouse and keyboard. The path preview doesn’t take into account the bunny’s size, and even though it seems that you’ll pass through a gap, you often hit your head or your feet on something and fail the jump as predicted. Worse, the rabbit often slides through the floor and dies, or slides over an edge and down a slope even though it was clearly on flat ground. There's no undo, so such an error that's obviously the game’s fault and not mine means I have to restart the level and hope that it will work this time. There is a manual save and load though, so you could try to remember to save before each move in case it fails. You get a medal based on how many jumps you used, and other than the trivial levels in each chapter, getting a perfect score involves pixel perfect alterations and jumps, which isn't a logic problem but a skill (and luck in not triggering any bugs) problem, requiring many retries. Mouse only control, although it can be made to work on the Steam Deck with some tweaking. And it may be just me, but I don’t like the reverse, slingshot control that's popular on phones and tablets. Unintuitive UI. [strike]The leaderboards don’t seem to work[/strike] They just fixed the leaderboards. No way to skip “impossible” levels you can’t yet pass, although all worlds are unlocked from the start. Overall, I really didn't enjoy this, but I liked the concept, and with a bit more polish it would work as a puzzle/precision platformer leaning more on the precision aspect. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3368947420 [b]How hard is it:[/b] Easy to hard (if you want to get the perfect medal), a good spectrum and a good difficulty curve. However, if you don’t care about the medal, the difficulty goes down a lot. [b]How long is it:[/b] 139 levels in 10 chapters, all chapters are open from the start, but levels in a chapter must be solved in order. [b]Level design:[/b] I don’t really feel that the levels were designed as much as tweaked into a challenge after randomly placing mounds, gaps and other obstacles onto the screen. The mechanics are interesting. [b]Quality:[/b] Lacking. No undo, but manual checkpoints can be a poor man’s alternative to it. Decent [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3368947502]level select[/url], good looking and showing the state of each level, but I would like a way to have an identifier for each world other than “the one with grass”. Mouse only controls, and I don’t like the slingshot mechanism. Just a few [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3368952220]audio settings plus a fullscreen toggle[/url]. Cloud saving, some progress and death achievements, global score leaderboard. Very CPU/GPU intensive. [b]Worth the price:[/b] Not yet. [b]Most positive aspect for me:[/b] Good idea, and the mechanics reminded me of the fun I had with [i]Kai’s PowerGoo[/i]. [b]Most negative aspect for me:[/b] Mouse-only, slingshot controls. [b]What would make it better:[/b] Custom level editor and workshop support. Proper undo, not just manual snapshots. World numbers in the level select. Better controls: proper support for controllers and the Steam Deck, and an option to switch from slingshot to direct jumps when using a mouse. Some graphics settings and optimizations to make it work on lower end GPUs and not drain the battery so fast. Fix bugs like falling through the floor, sliding over the edge, or only sometimes sliding down slopes. Achievements for completing/perfecting basic/all levels in each world. [quote]For more puzzle game reviews, news and everything puzzle-related, follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/25928931-Puzzle-Lovers/]Puzzle Lovers[/url] and check out our [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/puzzlelovers]Steam group[/url].[/quote] [quote]Follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]IndieGems[/url] for more reviews like this one.[/quote]