As the Name Suggests...

Platform_Adventure is, as the title suggests, a minimalist platform adventure game. You play as a red ball who must collect various red floating dots and keys to unlock new areas. There is clear inspiration from the masterpiece Seiklus in this game, giving the player not much direction when they begin and forcing them to explore new areas. Here's the breakdown:

Graphics:
The graphics of this game are simple, bordering on weak. All walls are solid colors, and everything is extremely blocky and low quality. The dark underground room is nice but overall the world lacks that creative spark that draw the viewer in. Flashy graphics are not necessary to make a game successful, but it seems that besides color, there is no distinctive feel visually to each room. If graphics are not your forte, I suggest getting someone to help. There are many graphic artists out there on the web who are willing to work on good game ideas for free. Even posting on the Yoyo Games forum may be helpful.
** 2/6

Sound:
The music in this game seems to be influenced greatly my Seiklus, using various chiptunes for the different areas of the pixilated world. There are many tracks and some are quite nice, yet others are confusing and out of place. An example is the opening, which is an odd fanfare that just seems too triumphant for the game's somewhat eerie style. Overall, there seems to have been a good effort put into the game's audio and it pays off.
**** 4/6

Gameplay:
The gameplay of Platform_Adventure is focused on timing jumps and solving puzzles, again very much similar to platformers like Seiklus. Sometimes it's tough to figure out what to do next, but eventually it becomes clear after some thought and further exploration. I did find myself after about 20 minutes still wanting to collect the items and reveal new areas, showing that the gameplay is fairly stimulating even though not much appears to be going on.
**** 4/6

Story:
While there's no objective stated at the beginning, a plot slowly unfolds if you can take clues and eventually the player understands the overall story.
*** 3/6

Interface:
While the controls were simple due to the game's genre, there were some flaws in the interface of Platform_Adventure. The instructions screen simply flashes in the first room for a short period of time, and after it's impossible to access it again without starting a new file. For many this may be a problem because how one saves is not apparent immediately. There is also a slight glitch that occurs occasionally when switching rooms, where the player stops moving and must jump to unfreeze. The general interface could be improved, but besides these few problems there isn't too much wrong.
*** 3/6

Overall:
This game is pretty large and has some good platforming adventure (which is essential given the title), however the graphics really hold it back. The reason the gameplay of Seiklus was so captivating is because the entire world was captivating--the music was amazingly appropriate, the graphics were artistically beautiful, and the entire game was extremely fluid--that is why it worked. This has some aspects that I mentioned but lacks others which is why it fails to deliver the gaming experience of similar great titles in the genre. Overall it's a solid title, and maybe some work on the graphics and debugging could really improve the fun that lies at Platform_Adventure's core. Also, I suggest a name change. Something simple to make it stand out...
*** 3/6


If you liked this game, try:
-Seiklus
-Kaipuu
-Painajainen