After the debacle that was Wednesday’s post, I decided to spend actual money on a game and it was long overdue for a game that I wanted to play since I talked about the demo in January. I figured that I couldn’t get any angrier that I almost got baited into reviewing a game that was an asset flip, so I decided to play a fucking puzzle game.

I played Toodee and Topdee this week for Christ’s sake.

Toodee and Topdee is a 2D puzzle platformer from dietzribi. It was released in August, is currently on PC, and retails for $20.

Rather than a Big Bang, There was a God that created several planets that revolved around the most important, yet useless in the English language, object; a Semicolon. God needed help in wrangling exceptions or glitches and maintaining their existence so God created Toodoo. Toodoo did his job up until the point that he thought his job was done. Questioning his existence after all was said and done, he decided to steal the Semicolon and now all of the worlds have collided and created what you would call a Run-on. Two heroes, Toodee & Topdee titled themselves, more than once, as the saviors of the story, so the game follows their adventure in returning the Semicolon to its proper place.

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It is so fun when games are so self-aware and this game is no exception. Toodee consistently makes comments about how certain rooms look like boss rooms and how the end boss really doesn’t need to talk because they already know what they’re going to say.

Gameplay consists of your platforming and puzzle-solving, which take advantage of both characters. Toodee, being the flat character he is, is in charge of platforming while Topdee carries the heavier load in the relationship. Topdee can carry objects, ranging from a wooden box to a portal block, that when jumped into, brings Toodee to another portal block. A majority of the gameplay consists of controlling Topdee, rearranging the world to allow Toodee to platform to the end.

The main mechanic here is that Toodee and Topdee can be controlled wherever and whenever with the press of a single button to flip the environment from 2D to 3D and vice versa. Toodee needs to clear a chasm? then jump, switch to Topdee and place a block underneath him, switch back and follow through with the landing and continue on. It is really something.

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Being essentially a sid-scroller, Toodee and Topdee manage to fit a large number of obstacles and puzzling into their puzzle platforming. One wrong move and it is back to the beginning of the world. Pigs, Spies, bats, and other obstacles stand in the way of success and it requires mastering puzzle solving to get by them. Tooodee and Topdee, at times, require a lot of thinking, and other times it is just incredibly easy.

There were a few moments that require timing to be exact and those were the times that I had to put the controller down.

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There are five worlds that Toodee and Topdee have to puzzle through, all of which do a really good job of onboarding the player. Each mechanic for the section is covered thoroughly at the beginning of each level, which is good because there was not a single time where I was questioning a mechanic. Each level contains a set of twenty levels that are all unique, nothing is recycled. Boss levels allow you to show your expertise in the mechanic of the area. All super fun and, actually pretty difficult.

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The soundtrack is done by Kajnoon and it is very well written. Relaxing low-fi comes to mind. The songs are catchy and they really do fit into the game overall.

I don’t know where to lump this game into, graphically speaking. It is quite a nice-looking game, with lots of nice colors.

I like it.

I have followed Toodee and Topdee for some time and it was truly an exciting day when the game was released. I was even more excited knowing that the game ended up being something that I really liked. The story is cleverly designed, the characters are funny and their relationship felt so genuine. I had a hard time in the end because of their relationship. The game ended up being around six hours for me but during that time I felt engaged the entire time. It is a puzzle game that doesn’t make you feel stupid, it is the game that makes you feel really good when the light bulb lights up and you narrowly escape the level.

Toodee and Topdee is a fun, cute, tight-designed game.

I’m proud that dietzribi released their game and how good of a game that it turned out to be.