Review: 140 (PC)

Holy wow, 140 is pretty neat, you guys.

This'll be a short review because it's such a short game. But it's a very good game. It is, to paraphrase another review that I read, a rare example of gaming minimalism done right.

The premise is made pretty clear in the surprisingly functional game trailer:

It's a platformer with an abstract, shape-y aesthetic. Already you're groaning. Stop groaning.

What makes it interesting is that all of the platforming moves and tricks are dictated by the beat of the background music (reflected cleverly in the thumping equalizer that makes up the game's background): platforms move, walls shift, and solutions emerge and disappear in time with the music, and as you make your way through the level, more elements are added to the background track to reflect the increasing complexity of the gameplay.

There are three levels in the game (and clever transitions from one to the next), and each level culminates in a "boss fight" of sorts, that changes the gameplay a bit (for example, one is sort of a top-down bullet-hell-style shooting game) but doesn't deviate from the game's rhythm-based challenges. These boss battles were jarring at first for the sudden fact that I wasn't playing a platformer anymore, but the new play modes are really just more riddles based on the rhythm of the background music. Once you figure out the beat, these "battles" are a lot easier.

If I have one gripe (and I always do), it's that at $4.99 the game seemed a little overpriced. I finished it in under and hour, it was awesome, and I went back and played it a few more times just for fun. It ends at right about the time it seems like it should, but yet the concept is really great and executed so flawlessly you can't sort of help but want more variations on the jumping puzzles, more clever bosses, more music. The fact that you don't get more doesn't leave a sour taste in my mouth as much as it just makes me hope that there's a sequel or something someday, but if you're pinching pennies, for the length of gameplay you get, you might want to wait for a sale. That said, if you're at all interested in music and/or platformer games, wait a month or so for the sale, and then buy it whether there's a sale or not.