Slugtrip

🔸 EXPECTATIONS: a trippy pathfinding game. 🔸 REALITY: a distinct pathfinding game mixed with other genre mechanics. 🔷 Slugtrip is (mainly) a pathfinding game where the objective is to bring some slugs to their goal. It is divided into 3 environments (or chapters), each introducing a new type of slug, for a total of 61 levels. 🔹 Important to note (if you play the demo or for <2h) that the 1st chapter is very short (13 levels) and easy, giving the impression that that's 1/3 of the game, but it's not. The 2nd chapter is longer (20 levels) and more challenging, and the 3rd is even longer (28 levels) with the hardest levels. 🔹 There are 3 types of slugs, each introduced in each chapter and behaving in a particular way: one slides "on ice" (until it hits an obstacle), another jumps over a tile and the last jumps over 2 tiles. The game 'clicks' when it requires to combine slugs, so there's more to it than just moving. 🔹 Another distinct aspect is that there's no 'moves' counter. Instead, each slug has a finite amount of slime it can leave behind as trail. Once it's ran out of it, it'll stop (for good or bad), but as long as it moves on it, it can keep moving freely, adding a lay…

So far I've played for around 12 hours into this game and I'm having a blast with it. The concept may seem simple as you just need to get the Slugs to the mushrooms but it is more difficult than that. You could consider this a Sokoban game but you must just get yourself to the goal, sounds simple enough right? The variation in the levels and environment as well as the different movement of the slugs (which I wont spoil) does allow for some interesting and head-scratching puzzles. Across the 3 different areas the difficulty definitely ramps up quite a bit too which is nice. As a new slug is introduced the game let you figure out their movement and then mixes it up further by having levels where you swap between the slugs. The final puzzle set then ramps this up even more by allowing you to control all 3 in the levels. If you're looking for a solid puzzle game with a good amout of content to keep you busy for a while then this could definitely be for you. Plus the visuals and music for the trips are amazing.

As a disclaimer, I was a playtester throughout Slugtrip’s development process, but purchased it myself. With that out of the way: Slugtrip is a puzzle game that encourages and rewards experimentation. Part sokoban, part resource management, and part 90’s Nickelodeon cartoon, it is up to you to guide the slug buds to their mushrooms! There are brief tutorial images to get you up and running (sliding?) but you will, by design, discover the game’s mechanics as you play. The level progression and difficulty curve are set up such that you will naturally learn and internalize each slug’s behavior as it is needed in later levels. As you encounter more slugs, the mechanics layer upon themselves effortlessly and the complexity ratchets up immensely. Each of the game’s levels are there for a reason, taking mechanics to their logical conclusion. Nothing overstays its welcome; you either move on or get a new twist to add to the formula instead of being forced to slog through twenty similar levels of repetition. “All killer, no filler” as they say. A given puzzle’s solution is not a ridiculous number of inputs, nor is false complexity generated by making the puzzles so large that deductio…