Welcome to our review of one of the most devilish platformers of the year, Ink, out now on Nintendo Switch.
Imagine you are starting a game that just shows the start place of the level and where you need to go. Nothing in between, just a black screen. As you move along, the player must move the little square to the end and as you move, you paint the level. You literally reveal the level as you go. Sounds fun, right? But really, this is very twisted and it adds a devilish twist to a very intriguing game.
Now imagine the very next round, you learn how to jump. You move to the destination point but are stopped by an invisible wall. It becomes clear it is a wall after hitting it a few times and then you jump on top and create the first platform. A platform that was invisible before and you just watch in awe as such a simple idea becomes such a devilish mechanic. A game that would be very easy in its core suddenly becoming very challenging. It all comes down to how well you can handle the player.
Next up, pits. Holy F, I hate these with a passion. Not joking, you hardly have any idea what to do and then they add pits? Damn, I fell down several just 3 minutes into them. Sure, you can jump up and splat the ink around, but if the pit is too long, it does not help at all…
Ink also has enemies you need to slay in order to pass a level. Once you slay em all, the destination spot becomes lit up and allowing you to proceed to the next level. Needless to say, as you progress, you also get to combine all these devilish features and thus Ink is born.
Let me say that this game is both fun but also surprisingly strange to play. As you can not touch the outskirts of the level if they are not painted, they become walls of doom. More devilish feelings come to mind here. This game is actually well balanced despite the intense feeling of hate you might have during its gameplay.
I would recommend against buying the game if you are looking for something casual but on the other hand…. If you like harder games, I do feel this is a must own really. It is crazy hard but with relatively smaller levels, you could force your way onto the next with just a little dedication and some luck.
In conclusion, Ink is more than challenging, it is an adventure. An adventure from hell that does deserve a big 80% rating. It looks and feels like a simplistic game, but it is actually very smartly made.
My rating is 80%.
