Published by EastAsiaSoft with a five-dollar asking price, Ratyrinth is a simple but pleasant short-burst platformer. The hour-long quest is loaded with easy Achievements and basic yet appreciated gameplay.
Playing as rat, the goal is to reach the end of each stage without bumping into a hazard – your typical platforming gameplay. The gimmick comes from the charming 1-bit visual style and the ability to wall hop. The challenge remains casual throughout so there is no need to worry about raging quitting frustration.
Most stages can be completed in under thirty-seconds too. Although there are no checkpoints, there doesn’t need to be any since each stage is so brief. The instant respawn, in the rare instance you do die, is also as painless as possible.
Around the halfway point of the campaign, the rat is introduced to swimming stages… which is a little weird for a rat but perhaps I am looking to hard into this. However, the last third of the game forces the player to hop on spiderwebs, sort of similar to how Mario jumps on the background fences in Super Mario World. The difference here though is how the platforming is handled on these webs. The player needs to press up to grab them, which is fine, but becomes a problem when more precision is demanded. The thing is, when at the top of the web, the rat bounces on the top with tiny hops because there is nothing to grab but then the player can easily fall without immediately pressing up to re-grab the web again. It might not sound like a big deal on paper but becomes the game’s biggest frustration in practice. Thankfully, there isn’t a lot of web jumping, and it is limited to the final batch of stages, but easily became the biggest cause of death. At the same time, the Bowser’s castle homage at the end is a nice touch and the soundtrack is oddly pleasant.
Ratyrinth isn’t EastAsiaSoft’s best simplified platformer, but it is one that is still enjoyable and easily worth the five bucks.
SCORE: 7/10
Not As Good As: Froggie: A Retro Platformer
Also Check Out: Garlic
Sort Of Looks Like: Hell Well
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
Twitter: @ZackGaz
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