Shiny
Review
Simple, yet effective
by Quinn Levandoski
reviewed on PC
Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto
At this point, in a late 2016 thats well past the novelty of the retro-styled indie surge, its easy to doubt that theres a ton left for simple side scrolling platformers to do what hasnt been done before, and probably done better. Its a fair thought, and while its one that Shiny doesn't completely refute, its one that Garage 227s heart-driven jumper will at least make you second guess.
The Little Robot that Could
In whats become a rarity among its kin, Shiny isnt a game about death or destruction. Instead, its about the universal drive to survive. In the distant future, humanity decides that its time to leave one of its occupied planets. In doing so, we leave behind a swathe of robotic workers, most of whom are powered down when the human ship uses up the areas power supply to fly off. This brings us to our protagonist, Kramer 227, who takes it upon himself to collect as much power as he can to save his friends before the planet crashes into a nearby star. Its really kind of silly, but, much like Pixars Wall-E, proves effective in making the player empathize with the plight of the characters at hand.
This simple goal- powering up the left behind robots- fuels the entire game, as well as its gameplay objectives. Instead of trying to shoot enemies, all Kramer wants to do is find power terminals, store some energy in his body, then use it to charge the robots laying around each level. It turns into a race against the clock as Kramers own power supply is constantly depleting, only filled by power cells around the map (think coins in most platformers) or power stations (checkpoint markers). It keeps you moving at a solid pace, and was surprisingly effective at hitting me with some pathos. I felt really happy when I saw a lifeless bot jump for joy after getting some electricity. I felt really bad when I ran out of juice a few feet before a checkpoint and watched Kramer lay down and shut off.
Its the Simple Things
Shinys biggest strength lies in its simplicity. It eschews the addition of complicated new game dynamics in favor of small additions to the simple formula of running and jumping. Running forward at full speed and jumping comprises a pretty solid percentage of what youre going to be doing, but it feels solid enough that thats not really a bad thing. The only issue Id say I have with the way the game controls is that short jumps can sometimes feel a little floaty and imprecise. Full jumps are great, but it took me quite some time to get the hang of little hops, which was strange. Also, on the topic of issues, I would occasionally encounter issues with the game switching between gamepad and mouse and keyboard control. It only happened in the pause menu, but once in a while, while playing with my gamepad, the game would switch over to my mouse. Not a huge deal, but one that was a bit annoying on occasion.
Of course, there are some additional mechanics that get added from time to time, and they do a great job of adding some complications that dont completely steal the spotlight. These mostly come in the form of extra abilities Kramer gains, such as a heat sink and a shield. These extra abilities are all mapped to the same button, and must be toggled through to use. It adds some situational depth, and also some challenge of dexterity when different abilities must be used in quick succession. They also severely burn Kramers limited power supply, so using them when not necessary is a gamble. I like these abilities because, like I said, theyre almost always ancillary to good platforming and dont overshadow the rest of the game.
Byte Sized
Its a short game, one that you can work through in just a few hours, but at the end of my play time I felt satisfied. If it had gone on longer I think it may have overstayed its welcome, but as it sits, its a perfect way to spend an afternoon or evening- running around saving your little mechanical friends. The game doesnt have much replay value after full completion, but I often replayed individual levels to find all of the robots to save. It didnt since rescuing all of the robots or missing a few really doesnt have an impact on the game, its nice that I found myself replaying missions (which are normally only a few minutes each) because I legitimately felt bad about leaving one of my little metal buddies behind. I personally think thats a much more effective reason to get players to keep playing.
Ive reviewed a pretty staggering number of side scrolling platformers over the last few years, and a disheartening number of them have fallen to mediocrity due to one of two reasons- they either dont bring anything fresh to the table, or they try to shake things up too much and dont put enough attention into the actual platforming that forms the core of the genre. Shiny isnt going to melt your face with novelty or depth, but it is an example of the kind of platformer Id like to see more of. One that doesnt run any longer than it needs to, asks a price to match, brings enough ingenuity to keep things engaging, but never pushes so far that it loses sight of the foundation that makes it great.
8.5
fun score
Pros
Emotionally investing story, balanced abilities and upgrades, solid platforming
Cons
Short jumps dont always feel as tight as they should, sometimes mouse/gamepad input detection gets a little wonky.
