Teleportals. I swear it's a nice game, is the second game developed and published by PixelGreeds. It’s a prequel to their first game; Yissa Deep Realms, and although they share similarities, they couldn’t be more contrasting from each other.
Susan, a respected scientist who devoted her life to find a cure to a very specific stripe of the flu, one that kills relentless, finds herself in a fight against all odds to save her friend Nancy, who is running out of time. After a long day of work, Susan must rest, so she can work even harder on the next day, and finally hitting the bed sounds an unnecessary effort, but one she must do.
With hopes of quickly falling asleep, she wakes up in a different realm, with strange sensations taking over her… The heat waves hit her hard and the bizarre looks of this peculiar land lead her to believe this is all a lucid dream, but it’s far from that.
Teleportals. I swear it's a nice game, is a puzzle game with dialogues that entertain the player with various subjects as the story progresses.
Dialogues quickly become debates about different subjects, such as movies, their interpretation, and how it defines someone. Moral choices and the greater good come to the table as well, with conflict opinions and its echo on humanity. Susan and Mikka discuss parts of life and its variations, according to the situation at the hands. While the story progresses, more and more secrets are revealed and with them, more questions are answered, through metaphors, humanitarian illustrations, and ultimately, defining not only the personality of Susan, but also Mikka's.
The story progresses through conversations between Susan and Mikka, and the more one advances in the game, more we know about Mikka and its involvement with the main character, in a place where time doesn’t seem to move, but rather deteriorates one’s memory.
Bruce is a good example of one's deterioration, not only mental but physical. However, unlike Mikka, Bruce is now a green box-shaped being, that will also help in this mysterious adventure.
Presented through a simple pixel art that’s visually appealing and atmospheric, perfect for its setting, levels consist of platform settings, with backgrounds usually with a comforting window revealing the scenery, while leaving one wondering what lies beyond this realm.
First wave of levels is set in a desert ruins, with open walls or destroyed ancient pyramid structures. As the game progresses through a rainy forest, with similar stone ruin structures, all the way up to the snowy mountains, until we finally reach our goal. Scenery changes, but the details remain, slightly, and sometimes minimal, but works well, avoiding creating more confusing elements, which is the last thing everyone playing this game needs.
(Cutscenes are presented with simple and beautiful drawings of the current player location, alongside with a panoramic view during character dialogues.)
But that’s not all the art there is to be seen… No! Naughty drawings can also be unlocked if the player gathers enough points. There are the bikini pictures and others far more adult-themed. During the campaign one earns enough points to unlock all the drawings, and a special patch is available through the official PixelGreeds discord.
Drawings are obviously hand-made, and they represent a classic approach on anime style, common in the 90’s. Uncensored images can reveal more of our protagonist in very specific moments, some actually explicit.
Teleportals. I swear it's a nice game is an extremely challenging platformer, where the further you progress, the higher the challenge become. Each level consists of taking our character Susan to a Portal located somewhere in the level. Portals are protected by laser beams or destroyable rock walls, and reach it may sometimes require you to teleport using Mikka or Bruce, and sometimes both of them.
There are 63 levels, in which the last five are a bonus, but their difficulty is nonetheless epic. The more you advance, the quicker you’ll need to move, as more elements come to help you, and at the same time, curse your adventure. Teleporting through multiple places and activating different objects to deactivate lasers or destroying specific platforms is something you’ll do frequently on the last levels. If you indeed succeed in completing them, you deserve our respect!
Not forgetting of course, using our friends to help us jump higher through inertia, escaping fire projectiles or even use Mikka to destroy a deadly trap. But like Mikka says; It is what it is!
Teleportals. I swear it's a nice game, it's technical on the fingers as it is in the back of your head. Although reflexes are what help you across those stressful moments, it’s logic and reasonable thinking that will determine the success of each level.
The gameplay is flawless, with decent hitboxes, that were recently updated to give an even easier time to players. The overall movement will be pleasant for more demanding players, as movement, jumps and teleports are fluid and the response is accurate!
If playing fast-paced platforms with keyboards are a no-no for you, don’t worry, controller support does exist, but Xinput is not available at this current time. This means when plugging an Xbox controller, the Xbox keys won’t replace the standard keyboard keys. The controller however, is fully compatible, and the precision is what you’d expect from a full compatible game.
In this strange universe, nothing is what it seems, and each chapter reveals a little more about this realm of uncertain entities. Some effects used on this game were also used on the previous released title, Yissa Deep Realms, they are after all on the same universe.
A fantastic representation of what a single dedicated developer can achieve when passion drives the man. A unique fast-paced 2D platform that require quick thinking and fast fingers, accompanied with a soundtrack by electronic elements to follow the brisk of your actions.
PC options are barely existent. You can toggle between Full-Screen or Windowed is mode, but for graphics, its simplicity avoids any deep configurations consisting only of toggling V-Sync on and off. Full-screen mode does scales directly to your resolution which is a plus.
An interesting adventure that requires thinking and some patience, with a deep, good, sometimes even humoristic story, just for 0.79$.
This game can take up to 10 hours, or much less if you’re some sort of human-cyborg, with a great eye and fast thinking.
Either way, Teleportals. I swear it's a nice game, it’s actually a pretty nice game!