Woodboy

[quote]Follow our curator page: [b]IndieGems[/b] if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/quote] [i]Woodboy[/i] is creative but short. I caught it during the 2020 Summer sale (current) and at 90% off, this was a fun experience. What looks like a [i]Zelda[/i] clone actually is just a medium-large puzzle, with individual elements that you need to figure out through playing a few runs before you can put it all together for a complete playthrough, which only takes a few minutes. The whole game takes place from beginning to end from Monday through Thursday. If Friday rears its ugly head, it's game over. During this allotted time frame, you need to perform all of the quests within the game in appropriate fashion in order for everyone to make it past this week. If you make a mistake or take a circuitous path, then it's game over and restart. (Keep in mind that this "time" is a loose concept, it more of an idea of several things happen in the game that would pass a single "day" causing the clock to advance. You are not restricted by a continuously counting down clock. You can spend as long as you want without passing a day, if you do not trigger one of these events.) Due to the very short nature of the game, it does not feel tedious to have to restart a few times to learn what information you need to piece together that full run. The whole game took me just about an hour to learn and to run through at 100% completion. Along the way, I had a few head-scratching moments and several instances of gratification that I was, in fact, able to piece together everything. Due to the short amount of time that it took me to figure everything out, that's why I mentioned the price in the very beginning. Full price at $7.99 wouuld be really quite high for the amount of content. Though I do like the creative nature of this developer. If you thought [i]Minit[/i] is small-scale, then this is that squared. But it has a lot of charm, and so I do hope it reaches a few more people. [h1]Controls[/h1] Controller and KB both work fine. [h1]Graphics[/h1] Charming artwork, some of the pixel sprite animations are really bizarre. The sword swipe hitbox and animations are really small. [h1]Music & Sounds[/h1] Retro-style chiptune that will repeat a bit before you are done. [h1]Could Be Improved[/h1] Despite the finite game with its small scale, there are two things that are currently in-game and can be improved: 1. I cannot access the "Quit" function from the menu, of the three options available, only "Start Game" from the main menu was accessible to me. No idea why. 2. There's a splash screen that tells you when a day passes in game. This shows up where it shouldn't at times. Fortunately it does not pass an actual day when it does happen. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] [i]Woodboy[/i] is a creative puzzle with individual elements that you get to uncover through repeat attempts before you get to put it all together for a complete run. The whole game took me about an hour to figure out all of the details and to finish to 100%, so it's definitely a bit too short. But on a heavy sale as is going on right now, I don't mind putting the little bit of money or time to support the developer, as I want to see this idea expanded into a bigger project. I would encourage you to check it out, especially on sale. It's really a neat little game.