#I haven't played Tori in so long so excuse me if I'm out of character xD

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#JakeReviewsItch

About Love, Hate & the other ones

by Black Pants Studio, Johannes Spohr

Genre: Puzzle

Pitch: A side-view, single-screen puzzle game. Help two characters manipulate their environment to reach the goal in each level.

My expectations: Seems appropriate. It's St. Valentimes Day. I've heard of this game, but I had it in my mind that it was an adventure game, so I suppose I don't know what to expect. I haven't played Tiny & Big: Grandpa's Leftovers, (also from Black Pants Studio), but it's been on my list for some time, which means I have a vague, untested affinity for this developer.

Review:

What is Love? Love is an attractive black blob with friendly eyes and a flower in its hair. Hate is also a black blob, but its threatening scowl and permanent scowl are repulsive.

The other ones are repelled and repulsed. Select Love and click on a green one, for example, and it will move one space forward. Use Hate, and it moves one step back. Contrary to what you might have heard, Love is not all you need. The goal of each puzzle is for either Love or Hate (it doesn’t matter which) to reach a button. Why are Love and Hate cooperating to push a button? Because Love and Hate are a simple way to represent Pull and Push as characters—characters who never say anything except, “I love you!” / ”I hate you!” in amusingly deep voices. There’s not much story, but there are dialogue-heavy cutscenes between two characters who can only say one phrase each, and it rocks.

The puzzle design is solid. I liked every one I played (66 of 80), though there aren’t many I’d consider especially impressive. There’s a good variety of other ones, all visually and mechanically distinct. Nothing revolutionary, but definitely above average.

+ Attracting and repelling strange creatures. The ability to fall from any distance but only climb the height of a single block. You can't fool me; they stole all this from Toki Tori 2! Actually, the two-character thing is unique, and self-contained levels are more like the first Toki Tori. And there's no way to die. They've taken inspiration from the best and given it a unique spin. I approve. + Not a bad puzzle in the bunch. + Tricky puzzles based on clear rules that are rolled out slowly and combined into even trickier puzzles. Bonus points for often tossing in an easy level after the most grueling challenges. + Hours of relaxed puzzle-solving. Trying to play the whole thing in one sitting for this review was a mistake. Short levels make for a great game to play for a few minutes at a time over the course of a couple weeks.

– Just a little slow. Speed up every animation by, like, 25%, the game would be 50% better. – Puzzles end with a thud. I'm a genius. Why aren't you celebrating my accomplishment? Have you seen Toki Tori dance? I deserve fanfare, fireworks, and catharsis. – Audio. There's a surprisingly long piece of music for the loading screen between levels, but there's no music in the levels. (On the plus side, it's a good excuse to pick your own soundtrack. I went with Teen Girl Scientist Monthly.) – There are four different worlds, each with their own visual theme and no other changes. Looking at the same dull background for 20 stages in a row, only to get another dull background for the next 20 stages is wearying.

🧡🧡🧡🧡🤍 Bottom Line: A strong collection of bite-size puzzles. Easy to understand, difficult to solve, and never stressful. It's no Toki Tori 2, but the fact that it can be compared to one of the greatest puzzle games ever made makes this an easy recommendation, despite its undercooked presentation.

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