Also on: PC, Xbox One
Publisher: Busy Toaster
Developer: Busy Toaster
Medium: Digital
Players: 1-4
Online: No
ESRB: E
It took me a while to get over just how ugly Georifters is.
I know that?s a little unfair of me, and that I should base my opinion of a game on how it plays, not how it looks, but man, this game is an eyesore. The colours are gaudy, the characters are nightmare fuel, and the world is just about the least appealing thing I can possibly imagine.
Admittedly, the game seems to be geared towards kids — as evidenced by the fact that one of the first enemies you encounter in this game are ?buttflies?, which are flies that ?smell like butt? — who may have a higher tolerance for this sort of thing. Still, I have vague memories of being young, and I remember being impressed by games that looked, you know, good.
Eventually, though, I got past the Georifters? ugliness, and I found myself more indifferent than repulsed. I?m not sure if that?s better.
In any case, once I got past hating how the game looks, I found myself bored by its core mechanics. The gist of Georifters is that you?re going through a series of rooms, and to get to the exit in each room you have to manipulate the blocks around you to punch and pull platforms, while also grabbing crystals here and there that unlock the exits. It occasionally requires you to put some serious thought into how to manipulate the world around you, but more often than not, you?re spending all your time in each level punching and pulling blocks around to meet your needs. It gets pretty repetitive long before you?re anywhere close to finishing the game.
In other words, there are three stages to playing Georifters. First, your eyeballs get assaulted. Then, briefly, you get used to the hideousness, and you can focus on playing the game. This, unfortunately, is the shortest stage, and quickly gives way to boredom, as you realize there?s not much here worth doing for any length of time. Given all the excellent puzzle-platformers on the Switch, that means you can safely avoid this one.
Busy Toaster provided us with a Georifters Switch code for review purposes.