Squidlit

Nintendo Switch (5) 2020

Developer & Publisher: Squidlit Ink LLC

Well here’s another Game Boy inspired game for Switch that cost very little in the eshop. It’s not that there are an especially large number of throwback games, but you put one up on the shop for less than a dollar and I’ll buy it almost every time. They must know that there are a lot of thirtysomethings out there that will buy a game just because it looks funny. Squidlit gets the look and feel of an old Game Boy game just about right. It has that weird green gray look and the sprites look appropriately primitive. They ruin it a bit though by having the border look like some strange alien console that never existed on this planet. If you’re going for Game Boy than go all the way. Don’t spoil it by putting it in some Martian gizmo that looks like what an artist in the 90s would draw if they had never actually seen a video game before. The fact that I spent so much time thinking about the border should tell you something about the game itself.

(Look at that crazy Martian border!)

Squidlit is a game with potential that makes two fatal errors. It is too easy and too short. It’s a shame because there are some things to like. It’s a somewhat free roaming platform game with a bit of exploring thrown in for good measure. It mostly follows a linear path, but there are a few quests that involve killing a certain amount of monsters. I enjoyed roaming around the levels and thought they were well designed. The attack is probably the most unusual part of the game as it involves jumping and shooting a blob of ink straight down. It’s weird because much of the time you can’t even tell if your hit landed until you come down from your jump. This does lead to some cheap hits, but the world is littered with health power ups so it’s not that big of a deal. There are other squid to talk to along the way and the dialogue is one of the best parts of the game. Some of the responses are legitimately funny and I wish they would’ve pursued this part of the game even more. If they had turned this game into a dialogue heavy Metroidvania than I think they would’ve been onto something.

Unfortunately it’s a tiny platform game instead. It’s telling that I am taking longer to write about this game than I spent playing it. It’s never a good sign when there are no saves in a game. I suppose that is another thing it has in common with vintage Game Boy titles. I don’t care how bad of a player you are it’s not going to take much more than a half hour to play the whole game. If it’s so short than it should at least be challenging, but Squidlit fails at this too. I died once and didn’t even suffer much from it. I just had to fight the boss again. I have no idea why this game has an option to restart the current level because it’s not like there’s anywhere to get stuck. It’s not a puzzle game it’s just a goofy platformer. Hopefully the developers take the money they made from this one and make a better game in the future. I think they have a good game in them, but it’s certainly not this one.

I had some trouble ranking this one as I almost always do. I really tried to talk myself into putting it in the blue section, but I had to consider how much fun I got out of it. Looney Tunes Racing is a bad game, but I liked the backgrounds and characters and got to play it for a bit longer. Squidlit was even shorter and easier so I had to put it lower making it my first Switch game to appear in the red section. It stands at 2/2/1 now but don’t worry I have a lot of eshop throwbacks to write about. I hope you’re as excited about it as I am.

1. Super Mario Odyssey

2. Galaga

3. Donkey Kong

4. Exodus: Ultima III

5. Pac-Mania

6. Pac-Man

7. Artifact Adventure Gaiden DX

8. Mickey’s Racing Adventure

9. Metro-Cross

10. Gaplus

11. Dragon Spirit

12. Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour (GBC)

13. Red Sea Crossing

14. Baraduke

15. Gamma-Attack

16. The Legend of “Valkyrie”

17. Galaxian

18. Evoland

19. Defunct

20. Gyruss (2600)

21. Looney Tunes Racing

22. Squidlit

23. Birthday Mania

24. Bad Street Brawler