Developer: FlyAway
Publisher: Bonus Stage Publishing
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Triple Take – Review
There was a time when creating so-called rage platformers was popular among indie developers, mainly because big YouTubers were eagerly grabbing onto the traffic that such games brought. Seeing somebody try their best just to get squished by a hidden rock was fun and so was seeing what unexpected behaviors a game was hiding, such as platforms moving away from you as you tried to jump on them. While Triple Take might not be as unfair as those games, it is a product reminiscent of those times, and it will probably still annoy you every now and then.
Story
In Triple Take, the player starts playing a seemingly normal 8-bit-looking platformer but quickly gets addressed by the game forcing you to the (real-life) desktop and having a message pop up that “they”, meaning the one sending the message, need your help. There are also some NPCs inhabiting Triple Take‘s world, where after almost every level there is somebody waiting for you to talk to. While the game starts off pretty slow and not too intriguing, these inhabitants actually set you up for some great mystery and adventure the further you get. We honestly went from “meh” to getting dragged into an interesting world where simple characters have interesting personalities.
Graphics
Triple Take has incredibly simple visuals that are always in duotone, but this is in no way disrupting or downgrading the game. The main focus is on gameplay, not on polished graphics. The few visuals that are there are clear and coherent in style. Each world might bring you something new such as different enemies, but the visuals largely stay the same. The only thing that really changes in each new world is a single different color. Where world one starts off in black and white, world two might be black and red.
Sound
The soundtrack is actually pretty dope and did remind us of games from the past. Every world has its own tune that sounds unique and is not too bothersome or repetitive because levels are rather short and interrupted by intermezzo bits of the story. There’s also a horror-esque element to the game where during some scarier bits, the sound is mostly absent, making the 8-bit air thick with tension. Jumps and death sounds might get a bit on your nerves, but that might also have something to do with dying a lot in the same level (on the same bit).
Gameplay
Triple Take can be classified as a “precision platformer”. This means that if you make a mistake in this 2D platformer game, you will probably be dead. Traps are everywhere, spikes are easy to hit when trying to jump over them, and abyssal gaps might swallow you if you miss a platform. Get hit once and you will have to try your current stage of the level again. Each level consists of three stages or takes. With each take, the level changes a little bit, sometimes giving you less platforming room to jump on, and other times opening up a new route in the level that you will have to take. At the end of each world, there is a boss fight waiting for you, and these are very fun to play as they offer a total rush where you often need to execute every jump to near perfection.
Because it can be tricky to hit a platform, the game can be rage-inducing and this is not necessarily a good thing. Especially with the hitboxes on certain objects such as spikes, it does not always feel fair if you die. That being said, a calm approach is often best, and staying calm in this game will more than often make the difference between a successful run or multiple fails. Our biggest point of critique though is that the entire concept of this game revolves around doing the same level three times in a row, albeit with small differences. While this idea is quite original, it’s also rather bland. The only enemies when not in a boss fight are your surroundings, and at some point, these just feel frustrating to get past. While the game still offers some good platforming “fun”, if you can’t take a game laughing in your face, challenging you to try again, this might not be the type of platformer for you.
Conclusion
While Triple Take got us with its original approach in many things such as the story, and the game itself is actually kind of nice to play (especially boss fights!), our critique is that the concept of doing the same level three times with small changes gets somewhat boring, and the platforming itself can reach a frustrating level. It is mainly hitboxes and trying to rush, which can make this a rage experience. Nonetheless, we still liked the game overall. It’s a unique product and should be valued as such, instead of comparing it to other platformers.
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