Imagine you are working in a manufacturing plant on a distant planet. Everything is going according to schedule. Just another day of work – when the unthinkable happens. Your local sun goes supernova and you have no choice but to make a quick getaway. And quickly escape you did, leaving behind your robot workforce. They are on their own. It’s OK… they’ll run out of power long before the planet expires. Except. That didn’t happen. In the waning moments of its existence, one robot rises to the occasion and attempts to save their doomed robot brethren. Its name is Kramer 227.
Platform Reviewed: PS4
Platforms Available: PS4, PC, Xbox One
Publisher: SOEDESCO
Developer: Garage 227
Release Date: February 27, 2018
MSRP: $14.99 (USD)
This review is based on the review code provided by SOEDESCO.
Overview:
Shiny is a platforming game with a good bit of heart. It doesn’t try too hard to be the next big platformer. It’s all good family friendly fun here… despite the fact that your character is literally scrambling to find a way to save as many robots as it can, but that’s beside the point.
Features:
At the start of the game, players are shown what the various elements on the screen represent. Your typical energy bar, a “special” battery bar, and your gadgets icon. But many of those won’t come into play until you’ve reached a good part of the game’s 20 levels. In time, you will begin to realize that your energy bar is going down. Congrats. You have stumbled upon one of the mechanics of the game. All your actions take up energy. It’s kind of funny too when you think about it. Jumping is the bread and butter of a platformer, but the game twists that in a way that you will have to start thinking about conserving some of those jumps.
There are 2 ways to keep your charge. One is to collect batteries that are scattered around the map. The other is to interact with checkpoints. Here, a quirky mechanic pops up. There is no way to get a game over unless you have reached a checkpoint. Each checkpoint has a limited number of uses, and if the number reaches 0, it is game over.
The main collectible of the game is the aforementioned batteries. The game encourages the collection of them, even handing out trophies when you collect a certain number. They certainly do extend play time, and coupled with the feature that allows your right joystick to pan the camera, finding those batteries can be quite fun. On the flip side, finding ALL the batteries require some luck and adding the fact that some of the hitboxes are inconsistent to say the least, collecting them all may not be in your best interest. The other form of collectible are disabled robots that are also scattered around the level. You will have to be a little more creative in finding them. But if you do, you will get a 50% charge to your special battery. The special battery serves as a clutch for when you are really low on energy and you need that extra bit to finish the level.
The Good and the Bad:
One of Shiny’s strong points lies in its simplicity. It doesn’t bog the player down with complex mechanics and the story is as straightforward as it gets. However, that simplicity also works against it. The difficulty curb doesn’t scale up as expected in most games. This is most evident in later levels where the player expects to be challenged but instead is given a simple run with seemingly no rhyme or reason. The game also keeps a lot of its mechanics under wraps, often relying on the player to figure out things along the way. This is good for players who do not quite like being told how to play the game, but at the same time, this lack of guidance can be discouraging to players who rely on directions. The gadgets are a good example of this. The game doesn’t explain to you what the gadget does from the get-go. You pick it up and it’s up to you to figure out what it does. The game is forgiving enough that you can stop and swap out for the intended gadget. The problem here lies in the fact that you don’t have a chance to match a specific gadget on the fly.
All in all, the game has a few good moments for veteran players of the genre, few and far in between as they are. It can still surprise you. For those who are new to the genre. I am definitely encouraging you try this one out. It might be needing some polish here and there, but the core of the game is solid enough. Especially if you have a long afternoon to spare and money in your wallet.
All screenshots used in this review are provided by the publisher/developer.
