extraplanetary dreams If you really want it, everything you need to succeed will be provided to you. Help is available (almost) anytime with just a few button presses. This makes the game uniquely accessible, even though it’s an “invisible puzzle platformer” designed to keep you tripping over and over again until you’ve learned enough from your mistakes to move on. I feel it. Depending on the approach, extraplanetary dreams is either a nightmarish loop of trial and error or a relatively light-hearted platforming adventure. Or something in between. I died 274 times in my first playthrough, which shows you how difficult it is.
extraplanetary dreams It presents you with a grid (you’re playing as the Blob) and some floating doors, and essentially says, “Okay, now let’s find the exit.” There are platforms that form the path to each door, but not all platforms are visible. This is where the game’s “set your own difficulty” ethos comes into play. Jump into the abyss each time, hoping to land on the platform, and remember each time you fail so you know what not to do next time. If you die, you can choose one of three available tools for guidance. Peek gives you a quick glance at nearby platforms, Paint highlights platforms you step on, and View shows all platforms in the room.
Being the stubborn person that I am, I decided to try as much as I could without anyone’s help. But before I got that far, I realized I was stuck at levels 2-5 and was humbled. This level has multiple sublevels and going through the wrong door will send you back to the beginning over and over again. Here, in the end I turned on “Display” just to give my brain some space to figure out what the puzzle was without having to worry about remembering the platform I enabled it. (When I finally figured it out, it wasn’t that complicated. sigh). From then on, I vacillated between going for nothing and using the “paint” option as a little treat.
The game throws you a curve ball around the middle when a new mechanic that requires cranking is introduced, but once you get past the initial frustration of not knowing what’s going on, this… I thought it was really clever. And furthermore, extraplanetary dreams The writing style changes and turns into something completely different from the first one. The developer writes in the description: extraplanetary dreams It was “more than a grid of dots” and they weren’t kidding. It was a lot of fun. Currently available from the Playdate catalog for $6.
