Puzzle platformers have been hot in gaming for a while. Games like Portal and Super Meat Boy were very popular and Semblance seems to be hoping to reach that same popularity. Puzzle games don’t have to be super complex to be good. While Semblance isn’t a new idea, it brings some new elements and qualities to the table.
The main protagonist in is a little purple ball with glowing eyes named Squishy. The premise of the game is to think of the world as if it was made of Play-Doh. Part of the world can be molded or edited to get the little pink orbs needed to complete a level. The puzzles start off simple enough while the player learns all the mechanics of what Squishy can do.
The colors are tints and shades of pinks and purples. Sprinkled throughout the levels are creatures like cats and deer that you can interact with. The turquoise crystals are the no touchy parts of the game. Those will kill you. Similar to Super Meat Boy, if you die, you respawn right before you died to try again and what you just did is saved.
It is made by a company in South America, called Nyamakop. It is a team of two and will be released soon on Nintendo Switch and PC/Mac. I don’t have a lot of patience for puzzle games but it was fun and beautiful to play. I even beat all three demo levels! I did need help beating them though. I think the one big thing the game lacks is more of a tutorial or guide in the first few levels to let the player know what the possibilities are.
Lots of kids that were sampling it seemed to like it a lot and were able to pick up some of the mechanics. It was a good pick up and casually play game, but it looks like the puzzles can get really complicated so there is skill involved. To learn more about the game and see when it is released, head to their website and join the mailing list.
