OKAY: Pony Island

 

For context, during the rebirth of my blog, we created 2 more review categories to go along with RANTS and RAVES. We created 'Rave' which is not fully capitalized to signify a game we enjoyed but we had issues with and that was given to Remnant II. We also created OKAY which is given to games we enjoyed but we have some real issues with. The only game that has been given a OKAY so far was Ghost Song and you can check that out OKAY: Ghost Song but now it appears we have a new one to add to the list. Pony Island unfortunately can not be a RAVE or even a Rave. It has to be an OKAY in my eyes and I hope to explain why in this review.

Pony Island is the first commercial game released by Daniel Mullins, the genius behind Inscryption (which got a very high RAVE) and The Hex (which we have not played yet). It was on the strength of Inscryption that I bought both Pony Island when it was on sale. I watched some trailers for Pony Island, got confused which is par for course with a Daniel Mullins game but was intrigued so I decided to dive in.

Right off the bat, I could tell this was game was going to be a trip when the start option was not working (a trick Inscryption borrowed) and I had to literally play around in the options to get it up and running. I chuckled and I knew this was going to be a good time. The game booted up and I was thrown into a rather strange, almost Atari-esque landscape and I was using a pony to navigate a obstacle course and after a couple runs, I started noticing glitches on the screen. I of course followed my curiosity and found other options and the game got even more Daniel Mullins-like. Soon we were having fourth wall breaks with someone talking directly to us, general weirdness and an uneasiness that work directly against the cute nature of the game. The way the game was played stayed the same (pony run from one side of the screen to the other) but soon we were adding 'adventure modes', lazers, flying ponies and more.

and the fun stops here.

Interspersed into the rather simplistic gameplay is arguably the reason why Pony Island gets an OKAY from me. Pony Island constantly throws these faux programming 'puzzles' at you as progression blockers. I understand why they exist because a lot of the game is about 'breaking' the system and even some 'hacking' but it really did nothing for my experience and after my fifth or sixth one, I started dreading them. These puzzles are mostly simplistic, asking you to bring a value up to a certain amount or getting pass some blockage in the 'code' by using arrows down, left, or warp/ portal arrows. All of them normally take a couple tries to figure out and are not overly complex but this constant break in gameplay is what really got to me. Being fully transparent, these 'logic' puzzles popped up occasionally in Inscryption and they became progression blockers in the second act and they were my least favorite part of the game and I would always just looked up the solutions online instead of working it out. For Pony Island through, a game which has been out for awhile now, online solutions like the ones I used for Inscryption do not exist so I had to brute force them. By the end, the very last one which really confused me and took me awhile to figure out had defeated me mentally and I was happy I had no more after it. By then the story had come to an end and despite a insane ending (again very Daniel Mullins-esque) could not save me from deciding I was only OKAY with this game.

The sad thing is, when this game hits, it hits. Some of the boss battles were really fun, the actually storylines (and yes I said storylines cause there is a deeper one buried in it just like how Inscryption had layers) really hook you. Daniel Mullin and his games real strength lies in telling a compelling story and because of that I was inclined to complete the game even despite some of the things I did not enjoy and it also helped the game is very short and can be complete in one long play session. Working through some of the game unique approaches, like slight spoiler, there is a section where you play a literal text version of the game where you type in text demands (jump for example) and everything is described to you in text form right down to confetti that rains down when you beat a stage. There is a even bigger moment where the game really breaks the fourth wall but I won't share that one cause it is a much bigger spoiler but it is on par with some of Inscrpytion's mind bending moments, really had me laughing and hooked.

However, herein lies what I think maybe my biggest problem with the game. I think I did myself a dis-service by playing Inscryption first and than going back and playing Pony Island. Inscryption really is Mr. Mullins at their peak. Insane, imaginative and very inventive. You can see peaks of that ingenuity in here but it is also buried under a lot of trial and error. This game has good bones but I can not wholly recommend it. Also despite the game being pretty short and I have got most of the achievements already, the achievement hunter in me can not even bear to go through some of the puzzles I had to endure again to get all of them. The simplistic game play loop of making the pony run to one side why jumping, shooting and flying is fine but not enough to keep me coming back for more either. I completed the game, unlocked the 'hidden truth' (which add a lot of complexity to the story) as well (using the built in Chapter search) but the final achievements requires a full playthrough and I do not know if I can do it and actually enjoy it.

In conclusion; I can say Pony Island, the game about ponies (but not really) is an OKAY title. If you enjoy the faux programming sequences you might even really like the game but those sequences really broke the game for me and even made me dread a second complete playthrough. The game play loop is simple and fun but not something you want to keep on doing. Similar to Ghost Song, I think OKAY is really the best way to review this. It is a game I enjoyed but there are some fundamental problems for me which I can not ignore. Also Daniel Mullin's has said his next big game is Pony Island 2: Panda Circus so hopefully he can take some of the lessons he learned from all his previous titles and really give us another mind-blowing experience.

AV

P.S Playing this and Doki Doki Literature Club + (which would have been another OKAY review but I do have as much to say about it with it being a visual novel and all) has pretty much burned me out on indies for a minute so I'll probably take a slight break from them before playing another one. Sorry Narita Boy!