Occasionally here at Player2.net.au, we will play something that deserves your attention but probably doesn’t need a full review written for it. Be it DLC for the latest AAA title, a little indie game or even an Android/iOS title. We play these titles for a blockbusting amount of time (2 – 5 hours) and report back to you the reader on what we found. So grab your popcorn and settle in for the latest episode of Blockbuster Gaming.
Blockbuster Gaming – Putty Pals
Nintendo Switch
Husbandito and I have two genres of games that we play together:
- Delightful and often cute puzzle games that we work through collaboratively with no time limit and squee with happiness when we complete them.
- Diablo.
Thankfully, Putty Pals splats itself right into the middle of that first category and is a natural fit for Nintendo’s new console. This is a wonderful puzzle platformer hybrid that delivers a simple yet rewarding experience to one or two players. With you and a friend each using a Joy Con controller, you each navigate your own little silly putty through numerous obstacles until you reach the end of the level and catapult through the air with saccharine cheer.
There are twenty-eight stages, each with hidden treasures that give our completionist friends something to aspire to. For the competitive power couple, you have the option to speed run the entire game. But for a strolling twosome, there are plenty of checkpoints to enable you to poke and prod at puzzles with minimal impact on your progression. All in all, there is enough variety to enjoy the game piecemeal with friends and family or to take your time and play it on your own.
In fact, it is the latter quality that I found surprisingly challenging but somehow worthwhile to even consider. It was something that infuriated me about LittleBigPlanet back in the day where content seemed locked away behind an absent second controller. Putty Pals is having none of that – if you want to exercise your left and right brain with your Joy Con dock then by golly you should be allowed to. I hear that others found this experience uncomfortable – I actually really loved the challenge of playing both gummy chums at the same time. It was such a different mindset and definitely possible. After all, you can never anticipate when your husband is going to get a phone call.
One of the delights about the Nintendo Switch is being able to see opportunities for independent developers to take a small aspect of the technology and Harmonious Games have really taken the Switch’s objectives to heart – bringing some people together to just play a game and have a good time. Putty Pals is, simply put, syrupy goodness from a local Australian publisher who is obviously doing additional research into the impact of too much saccharine on the general populace.
Sorry that Husbandito and I messed up your data…
Sarah Ellen