Every once in a while, it’s good to get out of your gaming comfort zone and play something different. I try to do it regularly to not get burned out of my favorite games and genres, and sometimes a puzzle platformer is what I need Almost There: The Platformer is like the name implies: a platformer in which your objective is simple–get to the goal while avoiding all obstacles.
In Almost There, you play as a white cube with a red headband, and like I mentioned above, your objective is to get to the goal. You move with your stick or d-pad and press A to jump. The movement speed is normal, but after moving constantly for a few seconds you get a speed boost that is useful for long jumps. When you jump your red headband leaves a trail. This trail is another cool mechanic since you can use it as a wall of sorts and allows you to jump again. You can use it like a wall jump to get to tall platforms or to avoid obstacles.
The game starts pretty easy. You just need to get to the goal as quick as possible. Completing the level with give you a start rating as close or faster of the target times you finish. This will determine the amount of stars you will get. It adds a good layer of challenge because in order to get three stars you need to be fast, but it is easier said than done because the game soon throws you a curve ball in the difficulty level. Later levels are more than just precise jumping. Some have obstacles like spikes, laser beams that go on and off and time intervals, spinning saw blades that allow just enough room for you to maneuver, and even heat seeking missiles! And you need to avoid all of that while doing your best to clear the level as fast as possible. It feels like the game’s name is mocking you when you lose. “Almost There”….and I was always like, man I was almost there.
In terms of durability, the game offers more than 150 levels across 3 worlds, and each level gets exponentially harder. It is not as hard as a certain meat kid character and feels really good to beat the level and bellow target time, even if you died 100 times trying.
The music in the game is really good. It doesn’t overstay its welcome and kept me coming back for more. I really liked it. The play controls are really good, and they respond quickly to all button presses, so if you die it’s your fault only.
The levels are colorful and and bright, which is good because some developers tend to make some levels darker to make the game harder and instead of motivating players to continue ,it only frustrates them to the point of not playing the game anymore. While Almost There is challenging and can be frustrating sometimes, I never felt like it was too hard, at least once I got the hang of the game mechanics. I was beating the stages at least in one star rating. Getting all three stars is another thing though.
Bottom Line: Almost There is a challenging and fun platformer. It doesn’t change the formula in any way and makes things clear for the player from the beginning you need to get to the goal. However, it’s not going to make it easy for you, and most of the times you will be Almost There. For someone looking for a fun platformer I can recommend it.
A Review Code was provided for this review.