Pon Cho Gut Emotionally – Poncho Review

<p class&equals;"western">2D platformers&comma; beyond Nintendo&&num;8217&semi;s elbow nudging nostalgia&comma; appear to me to be something of a rarity&period; Already one or two of you are likely poised to launch into the comments section to yell at me &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;ARE YOU SERIOUS&quest;&excl; You forgot <em>Shovel Knight<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Mark of the Ninja&comma;<&sol;em> and <em>Axiom Verge<&sol;em> exist&quest;” Hang on&comma; though&comma; because I really just mean platforming on a 2D plane&period; No RPG elements&comma; no Metroidvania exploration&comma; and definitely no combat at all&period; There are still a few titles that fit this category like <em>Limbo<&sol;em>&comma; but it is in a smaller niche group that I was curious about digging into as a fresh face to the genre&period; This&comma; I admit&comma; made me curious&colon; can <em>Poncho<&sol;em> welcome newcomers into its embrace while also giving an enjoyable&comma; fresh experience to those used to the genre&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western"><em><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;poncho-game&period;com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer"><strong>Poncho<&sol;strong><&sol;a><&sol;em> is a 2D platformer by Delve Interactive about a small robot looking to find its way to a giant red tower to help save humanity from the calamity&period; How will it save humanity&quest; What happened to humanity&quest; What even is the calamity&quest; You just don&&num;8217&semi;t know&comma; but everything in your circuitry screams that it&&num;8217&semi;s the place you must go&period; So&comma; in a similar way to how Mario was given a similar unwavering motivation and destination&comma; you venture towards the tower&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">In each level you are tasked with finding the exit gate over an enemy-less obstacle course of platforms&comma; sometimes barred by coloured gates that you must find the keys for&period; If you don&&num;8217&semi;t have the required key you can buy one from salesmen who are willing to sell you increasingly more and more expensive keys&period; Simple&quest; Perhaps a little basic&quest; Let me just slide one more part of the game into place gently&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">While your movement is restricted to a 2D plane&comma; you can leap to one of three background layers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">I just love that kind of design decision where a simple small adjustment really recontextualises everything&period; With floating platforms that change the layers on regular intervals and each layer presenting different platforms&comma; <em>Poncho<&sol;em> demands you not only to make leaps horizontally but also along a Z axis&period; This is not only unique but also manages to&&num;8211&semi;excuse the pun&&num;8211&semi;add an additional dimension to the gameplay&period; While there are a few odd&comma; mild frustrations of never quite being sure what layer the platforms will switch to next&comma; the gameplay has been polished to a brilliant sheen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;95207" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-95207" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;11&sol;04112051&sol;PonchoImage1&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-95207 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;11&sol;04112051&sol;PonchoImage1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"PonchoImage1" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-95207" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Poncho&comma; Rising Star Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">This gameplay is layered on top of a world beaming to the brim with a charisma that also strays off the beaten path in unexpected ways&period; The aesthetics portray an apocalyptic world that hasn&&num;8217&semi;t just descended into dirt&comma; dust and rust&comma; but instead has plant-life and charming robots take the place where humans once stood&period; As well as this&comma; rather than the story playing out in what could have been the dull &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;YOU WIN AND SAVE THE WORLD&excl;” fashion&comma; you are presented with a choice between two options that both have positive and negative sides&period; Without spoiling it&comma; damn I felt terrible either way I went&semi; I felt bad partially because the graphical style just made me love the world and everyone in it so much more before the narrative pulled back on the leash violently&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Although <em>Poncho<&sol;em> does come with one problem that does make or break the game in two&period; <em>Poncho<&sol;em>&comma; even at the &dollar;14&period;99&sol;£10&period;99 price point&comma; is 3 or 4 hours long&period; The reason for its short length is two fold I believe&colon; Not only aren&&num;8217&semi;t there many levels but each level is a bit on the short side&period; Even with the collectables&comma; which is where the added length seems to be drawn from&comma; the length of the game sadly feels a bit pricy for what you get&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">There is also a risk that due to the accessibility of the game&comma; making it a wonderful stepping stone into the genre&comma; those who are veterans &lpar;the type who take Pit of Panga in <em>Super Mario Maker<&sol;em> as a challenge and not an exercise in bludgeoning yourself to death with a wall of difficulty&rpar; may find <em>Poncho<&sol;em> a bit of an empty breeze that is easy to just walk through&period; This is especially due to the use of a respawn feature that plops you back to where you leaped from previously if you fall to your doom&comma; rather than anything like a health or life system&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;95208" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-95208" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;11&sol;04112034&sol;Poncho2&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-95208 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;11&sol;04112034&sol;Poncho2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Poncho2" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-95208" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Poncho&comma; Rising Star Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western"><em>P0ncho<&sol;em> does end up a bit pricey for what you get and it could end up a bit simple for those who need that rush of difficulty&period; Despite this&comma; and partially due to its simplicity which makes it accessible to newer players&comma; it still feels successful&period; It may be because I mentally see <em>Poncho<&sol;em> less as a game to challenge your skills and more an interactive tale akin to <em>To The Moon<&sol;em>&period; It feels like the type of experience that lures you in with cute and heart-warming visuals and enough gameplay to feel like you&&num;8217&semi;re doing something&comma; and then uses the ending to emotionally gut-punch you when you least expect it&period; Although it probably plucked on my heart strings as well as it did due to how unexpected it was&&num;8230&semi; Perhaps I shouldn&&num;8217&semi;t have said anything and let players go in like blind sheep into the gut-punching factory&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">&&num;8230&semi;Nah&comma; players would have probably spoiled that final emotional twist anyway in their excitement to talk about it&&num;8230&semi; Funny how our excitement for a sudden turn spoils the suddenness for future players&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western" style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A PC code for Poncho was provided by Rising Star Games for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;