So last week when I wasn’t playing through Outer Wilds I played through Frincess&Cnight (yes there are no spaces, no I don’t know why), a single screen puzzle platformer about a princess transformed into a frog and a cat knight. For those who worried about my luck with that former game know that my time with this game went much smoother.
The game is built around both characters, who you switch between at the press of a button, having markedly different abilities that you must take advantage of to guide both of them to the exit. The cat knight can extend their body upwards which functions like a jump, can then do a downward smash attack that can break certain blocks, and also can see in the dark in the rare unlit stage. The frog princess is the more developed of the two as she can shoot her tongue at any not moss covered wall and stick to it, which serves to reorient her own personal gravity along that axis (if she sticks to a platform on its left side and walks off its edge she will fall to the right as opposed to down). She can also swim or put the knight in her mouth and carry him in it before shooting him across the screen in any available direction, which can smash certain blocks. Here is a gif that shows a bunch of these abilities off:
While it isn’t revolutionary it is a rock solid execution of the idea. Single screen puzzle platformers can be a bit limited but there is a bunch of variety in the 55 stages included here. Certain design motifs show up regularly but usually one stage plays a good bit differently from the one that preceded it while still feeling very much like the same game. In some of them both characters will start at the same location and have to directly work in concert, such as the frog sticking to a wall and the cat jumping atop her so she can function as an elevator. Some will have them apart with one helping to clear the way for the other from afar. Some feel almost turn based while others have moving obstacles or require a series of quick moves and switches back and forth under penalty of death (the game does offer a slow mode for those who would want to play it but may not have the fast reflexes certain stages require). It starts a bit on the easy side but while it never gets absurd by its later stages it can push you a good deal, and there was one near the middle I had to look up a hint for as I just could not wrap my head around it at all.
Graphically it is fairly simple but rather clear. There is some story that pops up from time to time that has an alright translation (I believe the dev is Korean) that is sometimes a word balloon or two too long but is actually fairly cute. The princess legit feels like a terrible perso… well frog for large stretches of time and I appreciate that the game doesn’t ever feels like it is concerned with redeeming her. Most princesses would be spoiled rotten with terrible views regarding their lessers, games should reflect that.
Like I said before, this is just a rock solidly executed game with some really clever bits of puzzle design. It’s probably one of the stronger games of this ilk I’ve played in quite a bit. If one likes single screen puzzle platformers it is an easy recommend. TFYI the game’s itch page has a web demo if one wanted to test it out.