Much like you find in the culinary industry, when you design something that’s pretty simple fundamentally and share it with the world you’d better be sure that it feels perfect. There’s nothing wrong with game concepts that aren’t necessarily ambitious, and stick to one specific hook, but especially where controls are concerned you really can’t afford to have them let you down. That’s roughly where I’ve landed with Jello, a game very much centered on very quickly making your way through increasingly-challenging levels as quickly as possible. The problem is that while the controls do make sense and work to some degree, that isn’t to say you won’t spend some time fighting with them, especially if you’re trying to improve your best times.

Starting out things are simple enough, and the game does a decent job of introducing you to the different ways you can move, letting you get the hang of each before being a bit more demanding. This works well enough until you get to sections where you’ll need to flagellate and swing yourself around. There are two options for this, which is at least a nice touch, but I can’t say either quite feels ideal either. Now, considering we've had quite a number of indie games on Switch where you need to sling yourself around, and since many of them have fallen into the trap of these mechanics working fairly well, but not wonderfully either, it wouldn’t be fair to pick on the implementation here. That said, there are games that have handled it more smoothly, especially when you need to release and then fling and grab consecutively.

Taking those elements into account, we then get to the game’s overall value proposition. In terms of the game’s personality there unfortunately isn’t much of one, nor anywhere near the that seen variety of titles in the vein of Super Meat Boy. In general the flow of movement and the crispness of the controls also come up short against the subgenre’s top tier titles. What it does offer though, is a pretty solid challenge for people who’d just like to try to hone their skills, take on the game’s global leaderboard times, and have a decent time without the need of added bells and whistles. The experience works just well enough, but fails to inspire a deep need to stick with it unless you’re determined to chase the leaderboards.