Popo's Tower

Popo’s Tower is a compact yet surprisingly expressive 3D platformer that reflects Sokpop Collective’s philosophy of crafting small, focused games built around a single strong idea. Developed and published by the collective, the game drops players onto a mysterious island where a series of towering structures dominate the landscape. You play as a stranded pilot exploring this strange place, and while the narrative remains minimal and understated, the sense of purpose is communicated through movement, discovery, and the physical act of climbing ever higher. Rather than relying on exposition or dialogue, the game lets its world and mechanics speak for themselves. The core of Popo’s Tower lies in its movement system, which is both immediately approachable and deceptively deep. Basic actions like running and jumping are introduced quickly, but as you progress, new abilities gradually expand your mobility. Double jumps, wall runs, and a powerful dropkick dramatically change how you approach the environment, turning vertical spaces into playgrounds for momentum and timing. Once these mechanics click, traversal becomes fluid and almost rhythmic, encouraging players to chain movements toge…

A pretty simple game. Was enjoying it until I got to a point where I put the magic kid down, accidentally died, and then got soft-locked in an area without the kid, in which I needed the kid. I quit the game to see if that would fix it, but that's how I learned that the game doesn't save, and I was back at the beginning after 45 minutes. Hard to recommend just on that, as it seems you've got to beat it all in one go, which I assume would take two hours or more. If they added a save feature, and removed that softlock issue, I would probably recommend. But still giving a thumbs up because I like Sokpop and what they do, this was just a frustrating creative choice. Probably won't play it again, but I won't be refunding it just so I can support Sokpop

tl;dr: 7/10 Sokpop's typical short-form game design, but this time an incredibly fluid 3D Platformer. Their first attempt in this genre, if I remember right, was Klym, which I didn't like much at all. Here though, they made a far more fleshed out 3D platformer later with Kochu's Dream, but Popo's Tower is still pretty fun. For the price, I'd say this game is worth it, though it's still only about an hour and a half of gameplay. The platforming is so much more fluid and fun compared to Kochu's Dream, but mechanically the game is lacking in terms of combat. But the exploration is still quite enjoyable and the layout of the game is a little less confusing than Kochu's Dream. Overall, if you want a short, simple 3D platformer with climbing mechanics and even some slight metroidvania elements, check this out. As a heads up, this game is meant to be beaten in a single sitting - there are no saves here. Don't expect to be playing this game for much longer than 2 hours (I doubt getting all the achievements would take longer than that if you did everything in single playthrough).

I've played a lot of 3D platformers and this one doesn't work for me. It's missing some movement options, like you can climb up and down ledges but you can't jump or wallrun off of them which feels very strange. You also have no vertical camera control which makes exploration annoying. It is also ugly. The blur filter makes no sense to me and you cannot turn it off. It's like playing without my glasses on.

Short and sweet! I have to admit, I almost quit ten minutes in because it seemed a bit too hard at first, but once you get the hang of it (which also takes around ten minutes, aka once you unlock the double jump haha) it's really fun!

I enjoyed this