As I’ve said a number of times before, whether you’re making a budget platformer or an expensive one, when you’re rolling into the house that Mario built you can’t be bringing a sloppy mess to the party. Just because something is “indie” no longer cuts it to explain a platformer’s shortcomings, as there are plenty of them at all price points that may vary wildly in their looks and polish, but that still manage to deliver quality controls and play. Kotenok, sadly, isn’t one of those.

The first thing that struck me was that while its pixel art graphics aren’t terrible, they’re also quite ordinary. The layered forest background is at least nice, but everything else is hard to get excited about, and honestly feel like generic assets. While we’re talking about the visuals, I’d also like to complain a little bit about how it can sometimes be difficult to tell where you’re supposed to be going, since the same assets are used in background layers, but are only slightly darker. The thing is, when you’re on the move and making jumps, that can lead to some confusion over where you’re trying to get to or where you may land. That sort of thing just feels like it could have been handled a little more clearly to avoid issues.

Of course, even with my reservations about the game’s general look, tight controls and satisfying play can usually turn opinions around. Unfortunately, the game also comes up short in that department, with your character feeling like they take just a half step extra when you’d like to stop, mixed with hitboxes that often make it feel like you’ve safely made a jump but end up dying anyway. The weird thing is, you’ll even sometimes have trouble with it in pretty general areas, and even though visually it looks like you managed to clear the spikes you’ll die as if you landed right in the middle of them, and that can be frustrating. Given that it all simply feels uninspired and overly touchy, it’s hard not to reflect on the many indie platformers I’ve played that don’t get bogged down by these same pretty fundamental issues.