REVIEW: Shiftlings

Shiftlings isn’t a game that I wouldn’t usually pick up, and Shiftlings was the game to remind me why. Puzzle platforms are definitely not rare or new in the gaming industry, and a few recent ones have definitely raised the bar like Max: The Curse of Brotherhood, Rayman Legends, and Limbo. All of these being good enough to keep me coming back for more. Unfortunately, I can’t say that for this platformer.

You are in control of two dimwitted janitors, connected by a tube that keeps them safe in their space suits. Before they start work, one decides to find a bottle of Black Hola Cola, which is the fizziest drink in the universe, chugs it down obviously and turns into a hot air balloon. This is how we have our story. The theme is space, so you can expect to see space ships and giants robots on planets in the background.

You start off with some pretty basic levels, just so you are not thrown into the deep end. As your clever mate chugged the bottle of Hola Cola, you now have a certain amount of gas between the janitors, making one big like a balloon, and one the usual size. You can switch, inflating each one as you desire. This allows you to use each other as a tool, if you need to get onto a platform, you can bounce on the inflated character, when you are small you can jump and run faster, but when you are inflated, you are heavy and slow. Whether it’s bouncing off or weighing down, you use each other to get around the map and collect the rest of the bottles of cola. There are three in each level. Oh, and because you’re connected by a tube, you can never go very far.

I have actually surprised myself with how much I have enjoyed the recent adventuring with platform games, as they have been clever while still remaining a challenge. My only experience with Shiftlings has been frustration. Yes, this might just be me being really bad at the game, but often I felt cheated and so much so, that I didn’t want to carry on playing.

As I was getting very close to finishing the first planet, my whole save was deleted, which meant I had to do the whole planet again. This didn’t take me that long, but when playing through it a second time, it felt incredibly tedious and a lot less fun, which is a shame, and shows very little replayability.

Shiftlings looks really pretty. There are lots of bright colours and all of the space mayhem you can see in the background looks great when it’s not distracting and getting in the way of spotting the cola bottles. This gets pretty hard at times, and the visual style comes across as very cheesy and a little childish, which might put people looking for something more mature off. It’s definitely exactly the opposite of everything Limbo is trying to be.

The cartoonish graphics suits what the game is trying to be though. The whole time, a talk show host is talking to you, laughing if you turn a wrong way or make a mistake, this adds to the rage when you mess up.

Getting used to this game does take a little time, even though the controls aren’t difficult. Having to control which character is inflated, while controlling both characters gets very confusing. I often fell off a ledge because I thought I was in control of the other character who was in a safe position. You can control both characters at the same time which makes it easier to navigate around each level.

My biggest problem wasn’t necessarily the controls, it was things that didn’t always happen like I intended. Many times I found a tricky route that lead me to jump onto the other player to get onto a certain ledge, but when I tried to jump, my character sometimes didn’t bounce at all, he just fell through. Other times I jumped and it just bumped off the other characters head, no bounce, and I just had to start again. It felt like it was a 50/50 chance of making it because sometimes, even the easiest jumps are made difficult because of these sorts of problems.

I started this game on my own, but it’s the sort of game where it feels like co-op would work really well, and it does. I started playing the co-op and it was honestly a completely different game, it was quite fun to figure out where and how you were supposed to get the next cola bottle, and it was fun to pull off some of the trickier puzzles. Apart from a few control problems, it was very enjoyable. The one thing that was quite annoying was that both players have control of making their character big and the other small, so often I would inflate my character, making my partners character small, then turning it back at the same time, making us look like those pricks in the supermarket insisting that the other person should go by first. However, this is all down to communication, and once you get the hang of it, it shouldn’t happen as often.

This game is really good at getting your girlfriend or boyfriend into gaming with you, as it’s an easy and team building gaming session that you can do together, which is one of the best qualities of the title.

From what I have experienced, there is very little replayability. As my saves were deleted, I had to do the first planet all over again, and it was nothing but tiring. I actually quite enjoyed the game to begin with, but in my second playthrough I realised how uninspiring some of the levels were.

There are five themed planets with ten levels on each. This gives you a good amount of missions to tackle. You can challenge your friends online, and even invite them to help you out on a few levels, but chances are, if they aren’t completely in sync with your every move, you won’t be friends for very long. I compare this game with Max: The Curse of Brotherhood because that game was fantastic, but honestly I feel like it didn’t do anything to outdo Max in any way, apart from maybe the co-op.

The levels in Shiftlings were creative but they were all very similar if you look at some of the puzzles it asks you to figure out. A lot of the time, the hard bit is seeing the cola bottles, collecting them is pretty easy. You very rarely die but often wish you had though, because you wouldn’t have to climb all the way to the top again.

Right now, you can pick the game up for $14.99, which for me is a fiver too expensive for what this game is, unless you have a partner that is looking for any excuse to game with you. I’d give this one a miss, or at least wait for the price to come down a little bit. Comparing this game to other platform puzzle games out at the moment, Shiftlings is losing the fight when it comes up against Rayman, Limbo and Max.

Shiftlings brought a new idea to the platformer genre, but fell short when it came down to it, I can only recommend this game to people looking for a friendly co-op title to play with their significant other. If playing alone, this colourful puzzle game will induce rage and boredom, which won’t keep you coming back. I am rating this game under the impression that you will be playing co-op, as that’s how it should be played.

Have you played it yet? What did you guys think? Tell us in the comments below.