PixlBit

My, that’s a polished turd!

Beautiful aesthetics, wonderful music, and just about perfect controls are all you could hope for in a platformer save one very important factor and this eluded me for a while.  I couldn’t figure out with so many great things going on in Pid why I hated it so very deeply.  Eventually I realized that its well-crafted elements were completely overwhelmed by the boring, mediocre, and at times maddening level design.  It’s a shame that the designers primarily focused on the window dressing bits instead of considering all the things you would actually be doing when you play.  Pid struggles with knowing what sort of levels it wants to present, switching from puzzles to difficult platforming to stealth to long periods of just waiting around or running in a straight line.  Each of these disparate level types (and more) are middling at best on their own and when combined are a complete drag.  Pid’s wonderful presentation can’t save it from the tedium packed into every single minute of its tortuous length.

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A glimmer of hope for a played out genre?

If you’re feeling a little burned out from the deluge of indie puzzle platformers with unique art styles, you are not alone.  Pid, which is just this sort of game, makes a good argument for you to make an exception: it’s being developed by the same team that created Bionic Commando: Rearmed.  Although Bionic Commando: Rearmed was a remake of a perfectly crafted classic game, the development team that now makes up Might and Delight perfectly nailed the recreation of the original’s faultless controls and physics.  Add a completely new game concept and art style to that proven record of gamepad artistry, and you’ve got a downloadable title that should be worth your time.

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Consider this game that terrible family vacation you took where everything went wrong and you still had a little fun.

The Family Party series started earlier this year and while it didn't light up the critical world, it was successful enough to spawn a sequel. Once again developer Tamsoft brings about 30 great games, this time with an outdoor theme. In actuality, these games aren't too great as many are incredibly confusing or almost completely broken. The remaining decent games aren't good enough to overshadow the bad ones.

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