Game Info
GAME NAME: Shiftlings
DEVELOPER(S): Rock Pocket Games
PUBLISHER(S): Sierra
PLATFORM(S): PS4, XBox One
GENRE(S): Puzzle Platformer
RELEASE DATE(S): March 3, 2015
Do you watch the most popular show in the UNIVERSE? THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE? Forget Parks and Rec, forget Game of Thrones, Sopranos, American Horror Story (seasons one and three only), MASH, 30 Rock, and Samurai Pizza Cats. The best show in the universe stars two minimum-wage “zorks” bumbling around and pulling levers! This… Is… Shiftlings…?
As a puzzle platformer, its gimmick is that your two zorks – your characters – are attached by an air hose. Due to an industrial accident, one zork is always inflated, the other deflated. You’re sent to do menial repair tasks in hazardous environments, and the rub is that you have to get there and back without dying. You “shift” air through the hose from one to the next, letting the little guy run and jump, and the big guy stand on switches and act as a bouncing platform. Shiftlings is presented as a hidden camera reality show – and, if the jabbering purple host is to be believed, the most popular show in the universe. But the meat of the game, its puzzler aspect and unique big/small connection, is something that entertains untold countless beings? It looks like a kids’ game, plays like a particularly hateful stage of Lost Vikings 2, and sounds like those awful Leisure Suit Larry sequels that cropped up in the mid-90s. I mean, the squid-beings of Omicron Persiea VII don’t have something better than this to watch? The don’t have Breaking Bad out there?
The core game of a platform/physics puzzler can be pretty trying, made moreso by the odd jump mechanics and muddled controls. Playing the game single-player is ill-advised, since it’s so easy to screw up a jump or button press and having to retread your steps for the Nth time. Multiplayer, couch or online, is the way to go here. It helps that voicechat is crisp and lag-free, since many of the jumps and puzzles present require clear communication to pass. I mean, you’ll still jump too late off a stationary platform and fall a few times through no fault of your own, but at least the checkpoint system is forgiving enough to get you back quickly. In addition to the whole “two heads are better than one” thing for problem solving, the addition of a second person also makes the control scheme much more managable. But half of the “puzzle platformer” genre is the platforming, and when that isn’t present, you only get half a game.
Although it is completely divorced from the tone of the rest of the game, the art and animation is very good. The 2.5D perspective gives a great sense of depth without any slowdown. Characters – especially their eyes – are well-formed and interesting to watch. The two main zorks, purple guy and green guy, are expressive and fun in the cutscenes. The far-distant backgrounds are generally pretty lively, with ships zipping by, giant robots performing tasks, and some well-rendered planets, black holes, and other appropriately celestial stuff going on. Death animations are well-done as well. Getting crushed by a moving platform plays differently than getting your air hose severed by that same platform. Electrocution shows off a Looney Toons-style flashing skeleton. They’re clever, and animated very sharply. However, all this business can sometimes get muddled, which can lead to missing a switch or a repair station. Pulling the action out at a distance can also be overwhelming, as at a wide angle, the layers of objects blend together. This has the unfortunate effect of making pathways look blocked, and the aforementioned tiny switches look even smaller.
But again,the game’s tone just feels misplaced. The graphics and art, while quite attractive, are kiddy and cartoony. Obviously there’s nothing wrong with that, but putting those graphics on a sometimes mind-crunchingly tough puzzler seems disingenuous. The host of Shiftlings, that blathering purple moron, gets old very quickly. His dialogue is ham-fisted, in-universe without explanation (“One has an Event Horizon! Oh yeah, I went there.” WHERE DID YOU GO THAT MAKES NO SENSE), and repeats itself frequently. The jokes, by and large, fall flat as well, with an emphasis on farts and OMFG RANDOM observations about how you just died. And it’s just incessant. Turning down the volume on him is the only remedy. Even his helpful hints and comments are dumb and usually needlessly insulting. Guy, I get that I can’t run this direction. I’m just doing it because the animation looks funny.
The Recommendation
This game has a tough sell. The challenging puzzles juxtaposed with the kiddy graphics, surrounded by a pretty awful sound design, makes Shiftlings a difficult pill to swallow. It seems like the type of game an old lady would buy for her grandkids, who would then quickly get frustrated and go play Mario Kart 8.
