Knytt Stories

4 Simple and Fun
I’ve always had a love hate relationship with platformers. When done well they can be brilliant and keep me entertained for hours, but when something just feels a little off such as when the amount of control you have over the avatar in the air just isn’t enough, or when it just seems to take forever to stop your avatar causing you to fall off every platform you jump too, the whole game just feels ruined. This isn’t the case with Knytt Stories each mechanic is well executed and perfectly balanced allowing you to concentrate on enjoying the game.

The game play is simple search the world for power ups to accomplish a task of some sort, each power up will allow you to overcome an obstacle you were previously unable to overcome for example a double jump will allow you to jump that extra higher and reach that ledge you thought too high. Although game play is very simple it is very fun, I personally loved the mechanic that allowed me to climb walls as it made me look at the environment in a whole new way. The provided world is perfectly balanced to a point that it is obvious that each area was lovingly tested to ensure that it played well.

The sound is also simple but well executed. Ambient sounds that match each area perfectly add a lot to the game. The sound is so good that you find yourself forgetting that there is sound playing, it is not overly “in your face” but just there enough to enhance the game.

Graphics are again simple but effective, with a cartoony feel that sees each object with a black outline perfect for this kind of game. I love the little Knytts and how they fit seamlessly into the world.

This game is very well done with simple game play, graphics and sound but it does have some issues. The biggest of which was in the controls. The game did not allow controls to be customised and I had a problem where if I were pressing Up and Left then pressed jump (S) the key wasn’t picked up and my Knytt would run off the platform and fall to it’s water grave. That said this may be a issue with MMF2 that was used to create the game and not the game itself. Another minor issue I found was that the world did not scroll it jumped from one screen to another. This is most likely due to technical constraints and by no means subtracts from the game play.

Knytt is a simple and enjoyable game, a must play with only the slightest of minor issues.

5 A game by Nifflas, what more do you need?
I love Nifflas, as much it heterosexuality allows. It is funny how everybody was crazy about the original Knytt when it came out. It was a game without gameplay, but still, it is amongst the top ten in TigDB, even higher than my personal favourite, Within a Deep Forest. Well what would you think could come out when you take amazing game with no gameplay and add the gameplay.

Knytt always was about exploring worlds. Knytt Stories kind of added challenge maps and all these things, but the main point of exploring world is still there. And god, it is a beautiful world. Nifflas connects his somehow minimalistic graphical style with amazing details as funny, cute, or just interesting animals in the Juni’s word.

I was stunned when I first played KS. My amazement lasted a long time, but eventually, it stopped. For me, Nifflas’ games are too magical to come in with editors, so that everybody can enhance the world. I played many fanmade levels and they’r really fun, but the magic of Juni’s story wasn’t there and I rather concentrated on another run trough WaDP =)