Platformer games are typically not my personal forte. I’m not terrible at them, I’m just not great. I also suffer from “having” to collect everything on-screen; coins, gems what have you. So what called upon me to review OverGamez‘s adventure platformer Potata: Fairy Flower? They threw in the word “puzzles”. How is this even conceivable a puzzle platformer? Okay, now you have my attention, if for no other reason then to see how these two game genres co-exist. Welcome to our Nintendo Switch review of Potata: Fairy Flower!
Bewitched!
Nice artwork, family-friendly story
You play as Potata a novice witch who is trying to understand her powers. You’ll help save her village from stinky spores, evil mushrooms, spiders, and other dark forest spirits all in a two-dimensional side-scrolling perspective. The platforming sections have a certain “Mario charm” to them as you’ll jump on things, figure ways to jump up and collect a whole bunch of trinkets along the way.
Plenty To Collect My Pretties
Oooh, I had a key, I opened a chest and surprise!
You’ll collect a limited amount of things per level like keys to unlock chests, or strange berries, some of which help you get past certain obstacles. In Potata: Fairy Flower you’ll also collect plenty of blue gems akin to Super Mario coins. These gems are the game’s currency. They can be used to perform multiple saves at save points, yes the first save at each point is free. Gems can be used sometimes to make puzzles easier.
Okay, time to take a break and solve this puzzle, like I have a choice.
Puzzles range in variety from “how do I get over this gap”, or “how do I get past this snapping snapdragon” to actual puzzles like Tetris piece fitting puzzles or getting all the lights to switch on upon a tile-based frame. At one point in the game, I took the typical brute force method of trying to get past a certain snapping plant. After several tries, I told myself I must be missing something. Reading descriptions of the three items in my inventory all of a sudden created an “a-ha” moment.
The actual real puzzles that you do encounter do tend to slow down the adrenaline you fired up during the platforming sections. Some, like me, might enjoy the natural break during this cycle, others might not care for the ramp down.
Fun For All Really
Is this a friend or foe?
Platforming sections were challenging without being ridiculously hard or frustrating. The action is relatively slow-paced. Initially, you can’t do more than jump. Later on, you’ll gain a melee weapon but for the most part pretty-straight-forward. I could easily see how a young gamer could pick this up and feel like they’ve accomplished something, though depending on their age they might struggle with some of the real puzzles. And it’s not mandatory that you collect everything you see, but it helps.
In its current state Potata: Fairy Flower played well in undocked and docked modes. In undocked the platforming didn’t suffer from using the joy-cons but using a full-size controller seemed more natural. But the gameplay does make it well suited for a game on the go.
