Georifters Review

It’s a rare treat when a game exceeds your expectations, not even necessarily in any dramatic, earth-shattering way; just when it’s simply a bit more, different than you initially expected. That’s how I’d describe my experience with puzzle-platformer Georifters, the latest title from Busy Toaster: it’s a rare treat, not an unforgettable, genre-defining treat, but a treat nonetheless.

Initially, Georifters’ 2D puzzle environments, filled with blocks which can be moved like a shifting tile puzzle, offer little in the way of challenge. A fool (like me, for example), might take this simplicity—along with the game’s cutesy, cartoonish characters and art style—and assume that they’re in for a boring handful of tedious tile puzzles wherein the challenge will be chiefly found in trying to stay awake. That assumption, like the assumption that a honey badger is as sweet as its name suggests, would be laughably wrong. In just a few short levels, the game drops its facade of simplicity in favour of fiendishness, gravity-switching, wall-swapping, block-pushing, brain-teasing fiendishness.

Each puzzle room (of which there are 10 in each level) asks you, as one of seven playable characters boasting unique block manipulation abilities, to fulfil certain requirements in order to unlock the door to the next puzzle. Normally, this involves defeating a set amount of enemies or collecting a certain number of the in-level collectible crystals (which also serve as one of the in-game currencies). Of course, there are countless obstacles standing in your way: from spikes to instant death blocks, numerous enemy types to disappearing surfaces, and gravity-switching platforms to teleporters. At times it’s difficult enough to just reach the exit; you’ll need sharp reflexes and a sharper mind if you hope to face every challenge and pocket every collectible along the way as well.

What’s to gain from getting all of the collectible crystals, though? Other than the satisfaction of 100% completion, they serve as an in-game currency which can be used to purchase character costumes (every character has four or five optional outfits to unlock). There’s an additional currency too, earned by completing levels quickly, efficiently and without taking damage. This currency buys additional lives and upgrades for the head-to-head multiplayer mode.

A deliciously decadent disaster.

Thankfully, you aren’t powerless against the threats and obstacles of Georifters’ block-pushing puzzles. Each character, on top of the standard “jump”, “double jump” and “block push” moves, brings a unique ability to help with puzzle solving. Candy, a sugar-obsessed young woman, can drag blocks towards her from any distance; Dr. Schnoz, a robot(?) doctor with a superhuman smelling ability, can push blocks both up and down in front of himself, creating tunnels in the process; and Lex, a young painter with an anarchistic streak, can send great numbers of blocks smashing to the ground. Each of these abilities (as well as the other ones not mentioned) have unique applications in both puzzles and multiplayer combat. Plus, the characters are a lot of fun to boot, majorly adding to the game’s charm and overall personality.

And it’s that personality that takes centre stage in the game’s story. A series of rifts have opened up in the universe, introducing a number of separate realms and their inhabitants to each other while opening up the floodgates for nasty, peace-threatening foes and mysterious crystals to take over. United by a fear of their shared foe, the eccentric characters of the various realms must unite, using their unique attributes to return their worlds to normal. Is the story amazing? No. Is it even very good? Not really. Why do I still like it? Simply because of the characters’ quips and comments; they’re all written with a sense of humour and they’re all entertaining—even if they’re not genuinely laugh-out-loud funny. It could have been so easy for the developer to let the gameplay here stand by itself and not bother with adding a little touch of personality, but it did put in the extra work and so stands as yet another example of how this game has exceeded my expectations and left me pleasantly surprised.

I haven’t mentioned it too thoroughly yet, but Georifters has been designed with a strong focus on local multiplayer, either in co-op or head-to-head in competitive multiplayer. My experience with this facet of the title was admittedly brief; with the current global situation, inviting friends over for a local co-op session wasn’t really in the cards and there’s no online mode either. Still, from what I did play, the multiplayer works as a fun retooling of the game’s myriad abilities and level mechanics.

Other than the addition of a lives system, which just seems unnecessary, the gameplay itself is hard to fault, full of variety and a hefty amount of challenge. Its technical faults, however, hold Georifters back from excellence, at least on the Switch. The resolution is unusually low, even in docked mode, leaving everything looking noticeably ‘fuzzy’. Plus, the game runs a fair few notches below ‘smooth’ on the platform, most noticeably with the momentary freezes when leaving one room and entering another. Obviously, this is to mask loading, but it could have been done a little more elegantly. As it is, it feels like the game’s about to crash each time you enter a new environment (to be clear, the game didn’t ever actually crash).

When I think back on Georifters in six months time, I won’t think of it as some ultra significant, life-defining title; I’ll think of it fondly though, as the game that ran a few paces ahead of my expectations, throwing some decent challenges my way alongside a handful of decent jokes. For a fun puzzle-platforming experience, Georifters is very far from the worst you could pick—and that goes double if you’re playing with friends or family. Technical limitations make the Switch version less-than ideal, but the quality of the experience still shines through.