Waddle Home Review – Keep on Waddlin’

<p>The thought that kept popping into my head while playing through the cute puzzle game <em>Waddle Home<&sol;em> was a sad one&colon; why can&&num;8217&semi;t I play this without VR&quest; This thought&comma; despite sounding very disparaging&comma; existed because I wanted to play the game more&period; But I didn&&num;8217&semi;t want to play in the way the developers intended&period; <em>Waddle Home <&sol;em>is an example of a game that makes the player feel present and powerful&comma; but sacrifices intuitive gameplay to do so&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Very much inspired by <em>Lemmings<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Waddle Home <&sol;em>tasks players with getting penguins to safety through a twisting 3D maze&period; Utilizing walls&comma; buttons and other gadgets&comma; players maneuver a series of penguins through 40 levels&comma; each of which end with a spaceship ride home for the adorable animals&period; What makes <em>Waddle Home <&sol;em>unique is its use of virtual reality to immerse players into the icy&comma; arctic tundra&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll feel like you are controlling the penguins&&num;8217&semi; fate more than you would be just playing on the TV&period; You can even turn a fan on and have it blow on you to get fully immersed&period; Unfortunately&comma; none of that fixes the ever-present problems with PlayStation VR&&num;8217&semi;s tracking&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It has been a consistent issue with most games and <em>Waddle Home <&sol;em>is no exception&period; Early on in the game&&num;8217&semi;s campaign it&&num;8217&semi;s fine&period; You&&num;8217&semi;re still learning the ropes and there aren&&num;8217&semi;t really threats to the penguins until later in the game&period; You move blocks around and try to get the penguins to move in the correct direction to get them to their spaceship&period; The tracking issues start becoming more of a nuisance though when you run into areas that require more timing and precise actions&period; Jittery aiming makes selecting blocks to turn&comma; raise or lower almost impossible in high-stress scenarios&period; Plus&comma; you have to rotate the board every now and then as penguins move out of your sight but remain in play&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;115332" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-115332" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-115332 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;11&sol;16142012&sol;WaddleHomeBago1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Waddle Home" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-115332" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Waddle Home<&sol;em>&comma; Archiact Interactive Ltd&period;&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>All of this compounds into a frustrating experience once you get past the halfway mark of the game&period; There are even eggs that you can collect as you progress through each level&comma; but once the frustration kicks in from just trying to wrestle with the controls you&&num;8217&semi;re probably not going to be concerned with collecting them&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s all a shame because the actual idea of just pointing at and selecting something to make it work is smart and is a perfect fit for virtual reality&period; But with PlayStation VR&comma; the game frequently runs into problems that just can&&num;8217&semi;t be helped because it&&num;8217&semi;s a system-wide problem&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not even a complicated game&period; It even has some very good puzzles that will make you think for a little while about how to tackle the problem&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are neat mechanics in <em>Waddle Home <&sol;em>that also make it more frustrating that I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t really enjoy the game&period; Being able to speed up your penguin by bopping it on the head is a neat little touch that helps get past some frustrating close calls with robot enemies&period; Plus&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s a use of depth that only VR can provide&period; Being immersed in the world and having the capability of looking down and seeing nooks and crannies of the map is nice&period; Balancing the rotation of the map&comma; where the penguins are&comma; and looking in and around corners yourself is a satisfying feeling when it all clicks&period; However&comma; it rarely does because you&&num;8217&semi;re always fighting those damn controls&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;115333" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-115333" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-115333 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;11&sol;16142018&sol;WaddleHomeCloseUpBago-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Waddle Home" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-115333" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Waddle Home<&sol;em>&comma; Archiact Interactive Ltd&period;&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Tracking issues aside&comma; the world which you&&num;8217&semi;re inhabiting is adorable&period; The arctic setting meshes well with everything you&&num;8217&semi;re doing&comma; though there&&num;8217&semi;s no real explanation as to why the penguins are forced on these cubes of ice besides&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Hey&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s a video game&excl;&&num;8221&semi; The sound design is cute and all of the characters seem to be just as endearing&period; Bopping a penguin on the head is mildly amusing because of its aesthetic and the result of doing so&period; Everything just feels cold and it&&num;8217&semi;s up to the player to create that sense of urgency&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I&&num;8217&semi;m not going to dwell on it much further&comma; but because this game exists on other VR platforms that are known to have less tracking issues it may be better to seek <em>Waddle Home <&sol;em>out on those&period; With PlayStation VR&comma; the option should have been there to play the game without a VR headset&period; Unfortunately&comma; it is not present&period; Without VR&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;d lose the immersion&comma; but with VR you get the frustration&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a tough situation to be in&comma; but by not even giving the option to bail out of the headset&comma; <em>Waddle Home <&sol;em>makes its case for why PlayStation VR is still not quite there&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PS4 Review Code for <em>Waddle Home<&sol;em> was provided by Archiact Interactive for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;