Tobe's Vertical Adventure

Developer: Secret Base
Steam Release: Jul 2011
Hours Played: 1.5
Similar To: Osteya
Rating: 1/5 Parsnips



GAMEPLAY
We're back to the wacky 16-bit world once again boys and girls along with the obligatory chiptune soundtrack. Control a mushy, pixelated blob as you jump, roll and climb your way up, down and across the screen. Want a little trip to Frustration City? Then come join us on Tobe's Vertical Adventure! Not satisfied with screwy key-bindings for the menu Secret Base decide to go with a bizarre J (jump), K (run) and L (throw a rope) keyboard configuration - and no, you cannot re-bind these keys; thus making use of the Xbox 360 controller an absolute necessity. Anyway, putting absurd key-bindings aside, your aim is to descend towards the bottom of the screen to open a chest. Once opened, a timer is activated and it's back to the top with you as quick as you can before the timer gets to zero.


BALANCE & PACE
Various obstacles such as falling rocks, walking alarm clocks and nasty spikes thwart your progress as you descend and then ascend the screen. Strategy and skill comes mainly in the form of jumping in the right direction and at the right time but also in figuring out a route for your ascent as the timer counts down. There are lots of running jumps involved along with rolling and of course racing against time. You also only have a limited use of the balloon skill (floating down from a great height) and the rope skill (where you throw a rope upwards and climb up it). Getting it wrong, learning from your mistakes and then redoing stages again is the usual routine here. Along the way you can pick up crystals and rescue birds but to this day, as there are no discernable rewards, I don't really see the point. 


PRESENTATION & DESIGN
In a word, menus are horrible. I've never been a big fan of most menus in pixel-art games but this one is a nightmare. First off, Secret Base have inexplicably gone with the totally counter-intuitive J and K to navigate through the menus. Not only that, even though in red and green throughout, buttons shown do not correspond with the usual buttons that you'd instinctively use with the Xbox controller. I may be overstressing the point a bit here and perhaps the fault is with me in not adapting but when this sort of thing detracts from the enjoyment of the game there is something plainly wrong. 

PROGRESS SYSTEM
Apart from racing from the bottom to the top in this 16 stage game, there is another time-attack component in that you get a best-time as well as a best-score. You're also shown dollars collected (which are actually the amount of crystals picked up) and amount of birds rescued. Unfortunately, the developers have failed on the progress system in the game as well. I may be badly mistaken but this is mainly down to these stats being wholly inaccessible to the player - until you have actually replayed a level and see the stats at the end! Surely, I can't be the only one who likes to view these stats before playing a level; not only to see what I have to beat but to check if it's worth doing at all. With no convenient charts, star or medal sytem to make up for it this as to be a case of dropping the ball.

CONCLUSION

Getting used to the baffling controls is not the only challenge in Tobe's Vertical Adventure. Learning from mistakes and redoing levels is not always a bad thing (see the Bit.Trip games, Rogue Legacy, Gunman Clive etc) but here it can seem like a chore. Pinpoint accurate jumping for example is one skill which you need to get right. True, you do get four lives and losing one only takes you back to a checkpoint but repeated failures are common and having to do the whole sorry adventure again is not much fun. TVA, rather than making you look forward to giving a stage another go will just have you cursing and raising your stress levels. Oh, there's an endless chiptune in the background as well which you cannot switch off! Despite this being one of the most negative reviews I've written, TVA surely can't be that bad and still has a spirit that calls me back for another go.