World Splitter Preview

I love coming across a game that has a new mechanic that I haven’t really seen before. That is the experience I got from playing World Splitter. World Splitter follows the story of an alien along with his crew who have crash landed on a planet. The player takes control of the captain of the ship as he tries to rescue all his crew-mates who are scattered around the different levels. This isn’t a cut and dry rescue mission, to be successful you have to control the void between two different dimensions. This sounds very confusing but you have the ability to turn and rotate a world-splitter line to make platforms and walls appear to help you traverse the level to collect the multicoloured fluff balls then make your way to the exit on the right hand side.

This 2D puzzle platformer is a super cute colourful game that is a lot more complex than it may seem. The game throws a lot of hazards at you that might not be apparent at first glance. Besides pits of lava and water, there are spiky enemies that roll at you at a surprisingly fast speed. You may just think that you can just jump over them, but that is not the case when the alien’s jump height is only a few pixels high at the beginning. There is no way you are going to be able to clear them, so you will have to run or use the world-splitter line to expose a wall or pit to trap them. Be careful because the splitter line itself can kill you; walls can press on you and crush you depending on the angle of the dividing line. It will take a few tries to figure out the exact angle and direction to move the line to get your character where he needs to be. Having played a lot of platforming games in the past I’ve gotten so used to just jumping to get up to higher spots. So once you can’t rely only on that it takes some thinking to figure out what you need to do to get the alien where he needs to go.

In each of the stages you will see that there are two levels stacked on top of the other. Each of these levels are different colours, so it will be easy to keep track of them. This other dimension has a different layout than the first. Where the first level may have a pit, the second might just be flat ground so you will have to move and rotate your line to make a clear path and block the hazards for your alien to get through. The contrast between different dimensions with the warm and cool colours, the different seasons and environments pictured really creates a unique and beautiful visual.

World Splitter features six different worlds with ten levels in each for you to discover and explore. As you complete levels in the first world you will unlock the second world and so on. Each world will have its own type of challenge, so when you watch the cutscene before the levels you will get an idea of what will be required to be successful. If you get stuck you can jump between the different worlds you have unlocked if you need a break from the level you are currently on. If there are little critters you are not able to get to, don’t worry too much: World Splitter will let you complete the level even if you didn’t rescue everyone. When you complete the stage you will get awards based on how many of the critters you were able to rescue, how long it took to complete the stage and how many times you had to rotate the world splitter line. The alien will learn new techniques as you play through the levels so you will be able to go back and challenge previously played levels and retrieve any critters you may have missed before.

As you play World Splitter the levels will become more complex, but the game overall isn’t a super hard one. There is a co-op mode available if you want to try to solve the puzzles with a friend. If you are a completionist you can always go back to earlier levels that you have challenged and try to beat your time or collect any of the creatures that you may have missed on your first play through.

World Splitter is definitely a challenging puzzle game, unlike any I have played before. The visuals are beautiful and the puzzles challenge you and really require you to think. I highly recommend trying it out, especially if you want the experience of trying to use two dimensions together to create a level your alien can safely traverse. It’s a great twist on your usual 2D platformer!