Windswept: Pretty Funstrating
After putting in about 42 hours to reach full completion in Windswept, I can confidently say that Top Hat Studios created a 2D platformer that is faithful to its 90s predecessors, while providing a challenge and dynamic move set that gives the game an identity of its own. However, Windswept lacks tutorials that adequately teach players its most advanced techniques required for progression in the postgame, which results in a drastic difficulty spike for players who desire to see everything the game has to offer.
The core of Windswept's platforming challenges revolves around the duo of 🦆 Marbles and🐢Checkers, and how their team formation allows them to overcome various obstacles with unique abilities. For instance, Marbles can flap his wings to slowly descend in mid-air, and Checkers has an airborne drop dash that covers great horizontal distance. The two can piggyback off of each other and perform additional moves, such as an upward throw that reaches greater heights, and using Checkers' shell as a throwable projectile that can be bounced on. Despite the game providing a tutorial for these abilities in the first level, learning the controls can be daunting, since swapping between Marbles and Checkers and piggybacking with a specific team formation to achieve different outcomes requires familiarity with each character, and which buttons to press in a certain order. Once these abilities are mastered, Windswept becomes very fun to control, and the level design tests the flexibility of the player and their knowledge of which actions to perform.
Each level in Windswept has different collectibles to look out for. The C-O-M-E-T coins are five coins that players must find to earn a Comet medal🌠 at the end of a stage. Moon Coins🌙 are rewarded to the player for completing bonus rounds discovered throughout the stage and can be spent to unlock additional challenge levels in the hub world. Cloud coins🌨️ are also found in each stage, alongside hidden music records 💿 that allow players to listen to the game's soundtrack🎶. In a few levels, players can find secret cartridges that unlock arcade minigames🕹️ as side content. Lastly, in-game coins can be spent on action figures that allow players to view animations of the game's sprites. For the most part, Windswept does a great job of ensuring these collectibles are worth going after, as some are required to unlock postgame content. There is a helpful moth NPC named Laamp 🦋 who can help reveal hidden locations of hard-to-reach collectibles. Unfortunately, extra collectibles such as secret level exits have no means of being tracked down, which can make going after full completion slightly tedious.
Marbles and Checkers are not alone in their adventure home! A majority of levels feature animal buddies that help the duo traverse environments and overcome obstacles. Bluppo the dolphin🐬improves underwater agility and helps defeat nautical baddies. Nippa the crab🦀fires bubble projectiles and creates water platforms in the air. Skree the bat🦇🎧 can fly and attack enemies with cassette tapes. Pascal the chameleon🦎🖌️can attack enemies with his tongue and disguise as a painting to escape harm. Lastly, Nugget the dog 🐕can run at high speeds and charge enemies head on. These animal buddies add variety to the platforming and are easy to control.
Windswept is a fairly challenging adventure, but the difficulty ramps up with the challenge levels unlocked with Moon Coins, and the final world of the postgame. These levels require mastery of advanced techniques that aren't expected in the main game, and long sequences of precise button inputs. Unfortunately, some of these complex moves lack proper tutorials that teach players the ropes, resulting in a brutal postgame difficulty spike. Thankfully, the game provides assist modifies that make the journey easier. Despite its abrupt jump in difficulty, I found Windswept to be a satisfying 2D platformer that I'd recommend to fans of this genre 😁👍