While there’s absolutely room for quirky or very niche indie games in the eShop, and there’s a potential crowd for just about everything… that presumes a certain base level of quality and effort on the part of the developer as well. Impressive, or even sometimes humble, efforts in general deserve the reward of some recognition and success, but lackluster ones or those that seem incomplete or ill-conceived unfortunately just clog up the marketplace and are unworthy of attention. Part of being an advocate of indie games as a whole, and wishing them to continue to grow in recognition and respect, is being sure to call out the ones I encounter that do not meet the mark… and this is one of them.

Being honest, I’m not even quite sure what to categorize this self-proclaimed great adventure as. There’s a degree of action, and what I suppose you could call a puzzle element, but it’s all so half-assed and sloppy that associating this game with those that have earned a place in properly-defined genres feels unfair. You’re armed simply with a jump, which apparently involves a cartoon spring, and a primitive attack… and you’ll just need to make due with what you’ve got. Whether that’s in the form of running into objects like boxes to try to position them (your club is somehow magically incapable of making contact), or whacking away at an enemy that doubles as a statue, it’s all quite simplistic.

Bottom line, I don’t know who this is for, or why it was released in this state. To call how your character interacts with the environment or other objects on an ongoing basis wonky would be an understatement. At best it feels like a “Hello World” version of making a game, but still just an initial rough draft at that, not even in a state for serious alpha testing, let alone a full launch. When some people continue to equate indie games with shovelware, this is the sort of release that perpetuates that sentiment.