Recent reviews by 100% Hippo

I can't recommend this game highly enough. It is one of the best 3D platformers I've played, with entertaining levels, a phenominal soundtrack, solid controls, and on top of it all, it is just so cute!

The platforming in the game feels really smooth and intuitive (with the one exception of the few wires you walk on). I played mainly using a controller which was great, but I played briefly using mouse/keyboard, and that felt intuitive as well. The game was even able to instantly detect and swap between the two control schemes. You control the camera, and I never had issues with camera angles obscuring vision. The levels are a great balance between open world exploration and platforming challenges to reach objectives and collectables. The game does a great job making it clear where you're meant to go to progress while allowing you full freedom to walk the other way at any time. Each of the regions also have a unique flavor and play differently. There's levels with elements of stealth, there's races, and lots of really great platforming. For those that want additional challenges, there's the time rifts which are more advanced platforming challenges unlocked as you progress through any region, and some of the achievements require you to go out of your way to complete levels in specific ways.

The handful of boss fights in the game are very satisfying to complete. The bosses are a great difficulty, first presenting their mechanics then adapting them to be more challenging as you get used to them. Most bosses took me multiple tries, but I never felt discouraged. It felt really cool when I was able to finally dodge all the attacks and hit the boss at the right times to finally complete it.

The game also does a great job of having interesting characters and presenting a story within each region. The cutscenes are presented in a really cute style, and do a good job explaining the motivations of the various characters. Some cutscenes border on emotional, while others are humerous or just scenic. The characters have interesting and whitty dialog both in cutscenes and within the level. There's the mafia, the movie-directing train conductor, the ghost that makes you sign legal contracts, the list of vivid characters just goes on and on.

The music is fantastic. It makes the boss fights feel epic in scope, it defines the cutscenes' flavor, it makes each of the regions feel unique. Several of the tracks are quite catchy, and at this point it isn't a question of if I'm going to buy the 5 hour soundtrack but rather whether I'm going to purchase the B-side as well.

This game is one of the best I've ever played, perhaps the best. It is extremely entertaining, and so well made in every aspect. It took me around 14 hours to complete it will all achievements, and I enjoyed it throughout. I highly recommend it, even at full price.

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Delete does a good job taking Minesweeper style puzzles into 3 dimensions in a polished way. These puzzles feel closer to the original Minesweeper than the Hexcells series, though both games feel similar. The one difference about this game is that the numbers dynamically change to represent the number of undiscovered bombs next to the tile rather than the total number. This took me a little getting used to, but it allows the puzzles to involve rotation and movement of sections, which is a really neat element. The adjacencies can sometimes be a little unclear, but clicking on any number highlights its neighbors which mitigates this completely. You're limited in the number of mistakes you can make on any given puzzle, and going over that amount automatically resets the puzzle (you get enough mistakes though that this isn't an issue). There is however no manual reset other than using that mechanic, which is initially a little confusing. The minimalist design and ambient sounds complement the good puzzles to make the game quite enjoyable. It took me around 2 hours to complete all the levels, which, given the price, is fair. Overall a great puzzle game that I quite enjoyed. If you're interested in this I'd also recommend checking out the Hexcells games as they're similar and also well made.

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I enjoyed the puzzles in Isotiles, but they weren't super challeging, and the game felt a bit cheap (in terms of production) with some poor design decisions. The puzzles require you to eliminate all the tiles, with only being able to pass through a given tile a set amount of times - usually 1. It also employs a few other mechanics such as locks & keys, moving tiles, and arrow tiles, to make all of the levels feel interesting. The controls felt really nice in that you could hold down the keys and make sudden stops and the character would move as you intended. The music wasn't suberb, but it also wasn't annoying. It was just there and was strangely catchy for such a short loop.

The windowblind effect displayed anytime you change screens or reset a level is awful. You see it a lot, and it just feels like something that'd be put in someone's powerpoint who'd just discovered the animations. In addition, having this type of game with an isometric view is a poor decision, as it complicates the mental mapping between the controls (arrow keys) and the movement (diagonal). Just looking at the menu screen gives (pictured below) give you a pretty good indication as to how little to expect from this game in terms of visual polish. It does what it needs to do in terms of menus and controls, but nothing more (it wasn't missing anything, and I didn't have any issues with it, I'll give it that). No part of the game's execution was memorable, simply functional.

The underlying puzzles here are quite good, and fun, but the execution is very basic. A little under an hour of gameplay for me, but worth the price for the puzzles, especially if on sale.

Title screen picture (referenced above):
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1289708537

For more puzzle game and platformer recommendations, check out my Curator page

Is it a cute game with puppers? Yes. Is it a good puzzle game? Eh...

While the puzzles do work, and some of the mechanics feel unique, the game makes it very clear that it is a port of a mobile game: 3 star scoring system for levels, clearly optimized for touch screen controls, no "Quit" button on the home screen, etc. That's not fundamentally a bad thing, in this case it leaves the game with a general sense of unpolish. My biggest gripe is that every 4 levels you're returned to the level selection screen, even if you've unlocked the fifth level by getting all 3 stars on the previous ones. This means every 4 levels you have to scroll back through the pages of levels to go to the next as it always puts you pointed to the first level. The music is on the edge of being annoying where I'll leave it on for a while, then mute it.

I'll leave this review as positive as the tunnel and water stream mechanics make for unique puzzles. In many cases you have to form and re-form the lines to complete the levels, which I haven't encountered in similar puzzle games. However a lot of the appeal of the game is that it has dogs. Few of the levels really felt challenging, and throughout the 80 levels, I never really got a feeling of satisfaction upon completing a level, due largely to the things outlined above. It is a passable puzzle game, but if you're looking mainly for a puzzle game rather than a game with dogs, give this one a pass.

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Puzzles revolve around trying to fill all the nodes to be the same color within the given number of moves, and the game introduces a few other mechanics to make the puzzles interesting. The puzzles weren't too terribly hard once I got into the right mentality for the puzzles, but there were interesting. There are 75 total levels, and it took me around 75 minutes to complete them all. While playing, I encountered an issue where the game sounds became static-y, but it only happened on one occasion, and it may have been just me (though I don't think so). A good puzzle game, and certainly worth the price.

For more puzzle game and platformer recommendations, check out my Curator page

Another great title by the makers of To the Moon. It describes itself as a "story-driven experience", which is exactly the right way to think of it. Think of it more of a movie than a game, as where this really excells is telling an intriguing and emotional story, rather than providing revolutionary gameplay. Best of played in 1 or 2 sittings (took me a little over 5 hours). Makes references to To the Moon and A Bird Story, but it isn't necessary to play those to understand the game (I'd still recommend playing them, they're really good as well).

You Have to Win the Game is a very impressive retro platforming game, with gameplay that largely focuses on exploration (plus it's free!). It is pretty challenging and takes many hours to find the end, even more if you decide to go for 100% in-game completion. It would go a lot faster if you used a map - BlaXpirit has a really nice one - but I would recommend against one for a first playthrough as I got a lot of satisfaction from finally stumbling upon the exit. Trying to track down wins in Cat mode and YOLO mode (9 and 1 lives respectively) takes a lot of practice, and the Extra Spicy world is simply too spicy for me, quite the challenge. The game's retro visuals work very well for it with 8-bit colors and sounds (I think) and a very impressive CRT similation to wrap the screen. A game that would be worth paying for, so certainly it is worth playing for free.

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Much like Zenge, Klocki, and Hook, this game feels incredibly polished and satisfying. The goal is to push all the buttons in each level, but there's rules that dictate what moves are valid, rules that you have to figure out for yourself. The game does a great job of allowing you to figure out the puzzles, and introduces enough mechanics that each level feels fresh and is satisfying to complete. The only negative in my mind is that the last level felt a bit out of place, even once I realized the solution. Like those other games, it is short (~1 hour) but a really great experience.

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Hook is a short game in which you must untangle the hooks by removing them in the correct order.The game feels very clean and polished and it helps you figure out the mechanics as they are introduced without any actual directions. It is peaceful and not too hard, and I enjoy returning to it periodically to play through it again, even though I've done so more than half a dozen times already. It provides a terrific experience that I'd highly recommend, especially for the price.

For more puzzle game and platformer recommendations, check out my Curator page

Linelight is a refreshing puzzle game that uses relatively simple mechanics to make many clever levels. The music is great - upbeat and catchy, and combined with the clean visuals sets a wonderful mood for the game that makes the game very enjoyable to play. The levels are a great difficulty, challenging enough to make them satisfying to solve, yet not difficult to the point you want to quit. Many of the levels can be passed over if desired and you can come back and return to them later. Each world has a set of more difficult challenges that are hidden off the main track to provide further challenge once you've played through the game. Some puzzles rely on timing and movement which is utilized well, but may be offputting for some people. It took me over 9 hours to complete everything, which with the unique gameplay makes it well worth the price.

For more puzzle game and platformer recommendations, check out my Curator page