The traditional Metroidvania format works something like this: As you gain new abilities, you gain access to new areas. That platform up there that’s completely unreachable? Come back when you’ve gained double-jump. That sort of thing. Öoo follows the same formula, except when you return to those previously explored levels, you realize that it was only your own imagination holding you back. The magic was in your heart all along.
Öoo is a puzzle-platformer in which you play a little Kawaii caterpillar whose body segments are made of bombs. At the start of the game you’re just the head, able to move left and right, and that’s it. To jump, Öoo (I’m assuming that’s its name) needs to plop down a bomb and sit on top when it explodes. To jump a gap to the right, put down a bomb and stand on its right side when you explode it. That reasonably simple concept is how you begin exploring an ever-growing map, occasionally picking up yellow fly-like creatures and delivering them to large frogs that are blocking your way so you can proceed. And this all works tremendously well! It’s a novel concept for a platform game, one in which jumping is all about explosions, and you figure out new, inventive ways to use this technique as the puzzles demand it from you. It then gets even more interesting when it adds a second bomb. As is often the case with games like this, if that sounds like your jam, I strongly suggest you stop reading now and go buy it. It’s only $8, and it’s one of my favorite games of the year. The rest of this piece is to convince everyone else of its genius, but also gives the reader a bit more information than I had when I started playing, after completing its stunning demo earlier in the year.
So, you place a bomb with A (and by default are left sitting on top of it) and explode it with X. Place two bombs and then X will explode each in the order you placed them. Put two on top of each other with you sitting at the top and you’ve got a sort of double-jump. Sit on one while the other blows you sideways…well, this is the sort of stuff you need to figure out.
When the Öoo demo came out earlier this year, it suggested that a second bomb was something you got very early on in the game, which may have led some to suspect that a third and a fourth would be arriving soon after. I’m rather pleased to report that’s not actually the case, or I suspect what has proven to be one of the most meticulously crafted puzzle-platformers I’ve ever played might have become too woefully complicated. While there’s great appeal in sandbox experimentation with four different bombs exploding in order, to discern the one desired combination for a puzzle solution would have been deeply demoralizing. Sticking to two, but having so much imagination for how they can be used in ever-more interesting ways, demonstrates an awful lot of smarts. In fact, you have just two until the very end of the game, but you’ll never stop learning new ways to use them.
And this is the key. If this were a game about getting more and more bomb segments, or even being given fresh new abilities with which they interact, then you’d have something like a traditional Metroidvania. But it isn’t and you aren’t. You get that second bomb about half an hour into the game, and then that’s your lot. So why is it that Öoo still plays like a Metroidvania? Because it’s just so utterly, brilliantly designed.
Almost from the start, you’ll encounter areas you can’t yet reach. You then play on in another direction, with the gradual introduction of increasingly complex puzzles causing you to think more inventively about your tools and how you can use them. At a certain point, rather than being able to carry on any further, you’ll reach a dead end in one of the game’s occasional teleport rooms, and you’re just left with the option to jump back to a part of the map where you can see an incomplete path. It’ll be one of those areas you couldn’t reach yet. Except, well, now you can. Not because you have a new skill, but because now you can think differently about how to approach the puzzle. And I’ve never experienced anything like this before. It’s quite extraordinary!
Gosh, that was a long and necessary route to make that one point, so let’s move on to what else makes Öoo such a great game. This is a follow-up to developer Nama Takahashi’s ElecHead, itself a wonderful platform-puzzler, and shares its retro aesthetic, albeit now with a more vibrant color palette. Gorgeous looping animations mean the levels feel buoyant, and Öoo itself is bursting with character, complete with falling asleep and snoring when left idle. And let’s not put aside that the game is called Öoo because that’s exactly what the character looks like.
Another hugely important aspect of Öoo is that it has no interest in wasting your time. To solve puzzles you need to experiment, and to do that, you need to take risks. There are a bunch of ways to die, but there’s no significant penalty. Checkpoint flags are everywhere, meaning you’re never forced to mindlessly retrace your steps. The only times you might be more than a screen away are when there’d otherwise not be a means to backtrack–which is to say, everything’s been thought of, and you won’t be infuriatingly trapped. Should you become completely flummoxed by a puzzle, however, Takahashi has recorded a video of his completing the entire game, which you can easily scrub to find where you’re currently stuck. At which point you will put your head in your hands and lament your folly for not having figured it out for yourself. Because, as I’ve said, this game gives you everything you need right from the start.
Worry not when you see that walkthrough video is only 45 minutes long. This is the creator of the game, and in real life you’ll be easily spending at least three or four hours before you’ll reach the end credits. And what a splendid few hours it is! This is such a delightful game, and so wonderfully intelligent in its creation.
