You know what makes a platformer annoying? Blind jumps. Having the player jump off screen into the unknown, which could easily lead to instant death or unfair damage, has been defined as poor game design for years. Now what if there was a game that focused entirely on this frustrating game mechanic – that is what Blindy does but on purpose.
This 2D pixel platformer only allows the player to see the immediate neighboring tile making all jumps, platforming, and just walking blind. The early stages can be completed with only a little trouble as the level design simply throws spike filled pits at the player. However, the difficulty quickly ramps up as more obstacles come into play like spinning blades and unlikely platforms that are behind the player. When the player dies, the unnamed protagonist usually explodes into bloody pixels. What initially looks like a cool effect actually becomes an important part of the game as these chunks can be seen by the player even in the pitch black, providing a hint or guide of sorts for the next attempt. Adding another layer of challenge, these hint-based bloody pixels fade quickly, forcing the player to move fast. The goal is to simply reach the end of the non-scrolling stage but is much easier said than done. As a bonus, each stage also features a hidden collectable coin but am unsure if collecting them all actually unlock everything as I was unable to complete this dastardly feat.
Blindy is actually a very simple game as the entire stage takes place on a single screen and there are barely any graphics. In fact, most of the game is black nothingness. There are also a couple other modes, each limiting the player life count, but still features the same gameplay of the main stages. This low file sized downloadable game luckily has instant respawning so the technical side of the game won’t ever get in the way – only the purposely designed tedious stages will.
It isn’t that Blindy is a bad game, or even a good game, it is just a very specific type of game that a very specific audience will truly enjoy. Personally, after I die a few dozen times trying to land a series of blind pixel perfect jumps, I am fine with moving on to something else before I am forced to snap my Switch in two. The blinded Dark Souls of platforming? Maybe. You’ve been warned.
SCORE: 5/10
Also Try: those super ridiculously hard levels in Super Mario Maker
Better Than: a Bubsy game
Wait For It: a new Klonoa
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
Twitter: @ZackGaz
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