140

 
Developer: Carlsen Games
Steam Release: Oct 2013
Hours Played: 2.5
Similar To: Before the Echo / Bit.Trip Void / Crypt of the Necrodancer / Inside My Radio
Rating: 5/5 Parsnips




GAMEPLAY
140 is an absorbing platformer / rhythm game that occupies a place somewhere between Thomas Was Alone, Bit.Trip Runner and VVVVVV. With the beats of the music playing a very useful role in timing jumps, 140 really adds up to something quite marvellous. You begin by nudging one of three dots that take you to the start of its corresponding chapter. Then, with various shapes moving around in a regular pattern and/or appearing and disappearing in time to the beat of the music, your job is to time your movements precisely so that they coincide with landing on safe spots while all the time avoiding the huge variety of traps and obstacles. Originally categorised as an action platformer, 140 is a rhythm game first and foremost which simply uses different shaped platforms to move you forward. 
 

BALANCE & PACE
Levels are extremely inventive - just what you'd expect from the guy who helped give us Limbo - with a tough arcade-like boss to face at the end of each. The game gives zero instructions so it's all intuitive stuff but the first two chapters can pretty much be done in around an hour with the third being distinctly harder. At rest, you are a small square; a circle when sliding and a triangle when jumping. You move left, right and jump while attempting to reach the exit portal in a very plain landscape rendered in very basic colours but they do change regularly to give levels that mark of distinction. There are around a dozen or so levels in each of the three chapters but you can only save at the end of a chapter so you're always at the start of a chapter on firing it up.
 

PRESENTATION & DESIGN
To paraphrase the words of mad professor Doc Brown in the film Back to the Future: in the game of 140, where you're going, you won’t need... menus! In fact, the only menu that you'll see with this entire game is the Windows 98 style pop-up box that appears when hitting play from Steam. Select your screen resolution, graphics quality (high or low - if you can believe that!) and whether you want full-screen or windowed mode... and it's away you go to a screen with a large number 140 splayed across it with multi-coloured blocks flashing away in the background. Click start and watch the numbers merge together to form a small white square that you control in the game. Escaping the game takes you immediately straight back to your desktop with zero aplomb.

PROGRESS SYSTEM
You get to choose to do one of three chapters by nudging one of three dots right at the start of every game (chapter 2 and 3 have to be unlocked). The only time you get to save your game is after you have completed an entire chapter. You cannot do this level by level. This means, as mentioned, that if you exit the game while near the end of a chapter, you have to start from the beginning of the chapter again next time. Thankfully, this shouldn't really be a deal-breaker for a number of reasons: (1) with the first two chapters being only around 30 minutes each and the gameplay being so immersive and enjoyable, the game is very replayable anyway; (2) for the harder third chapter, you might want a bit of a warm up and (4) you might want others to experience this game as well!

CONCLUSION
You might think that rhythm games have exhausted all the different mechanics that are possible to devise but 140 still manages to come up with original ideas. It mainly achieves its success through its magnificent soundtrack but smashing tricky moves as the chunky music plays really helps make the player feel awesome and in that zone. Boss levels are also amazingly designed and controls are slick and responsive. To inject even more replayability the game could have introduced a timer for speedrunning both level and chapters but this is a very minor point. For anyone who enjoys rhythm games don't be tight by holding back for a sale – for the price of a pint of beer the developers definitely deserve your support on this one.