I really wanted to like this game, I really did, I saw it's charm and silly premise and really wanted to immerse myself in a gameboy-esque world filled with colorful characters and a fantastical story. Little did I know what I was getting into wasn't just a game that would look like a gameboy release, but also feel like one, all the jankiness and sometimes downright hostile design included as was customary for that era. Seriously, If you had given me this game with no context whatsoever the only thing that would've tipped me off about it not actually being an authentic gameboy release is the fact that the character sprites don't actually follow pixel grids and the main character's jump physics let him slide up corners to make otherwise impossible jumps, so really I must commend the dev's dedication on going all in on the theme.
The story is... fine. The general concept and ideas I liked a lot, but it's when it comes to the execution that a lot was left to be desired. Now it's important to mention: I played this game in english, which I can tell is not the original language of the game, so it's possible that there were some things lost in translation or perhaps the translator just wasn't very good at conveying the original message in an elegant way (there are some minor spelling/grammar mistakes here and there so it really wouldn't surprise me if that were the case). However, as it stands I must report that dialogue in english was written in an incredibly stiff and artificial way. None of the characters feel like actual people, they're mostly just tropes and one-dimensional plot devices, and they stay very simple even when the story attempts to develop them beyond that. This would honestly be fine if the game was more self-aware and tongue-in-cheek, and while it DOES have moments that are more humorous which work far better imo, those are honestly quite rare. For a game called "Save me Mr Tako!" which is centered around a conflict between humans and a race of sentient octopuses (that's what the game calls them, don't yell at me for not using 'octopi') the tone is weirdly serious throughout, and it does not work in the game's favour as most of the dramatic moments really fall flat. There are also some minor inconsistencies in the worldbuilding as well as characters sometimes not making the most logical decisions or other plot contrivances, but honestly if you get into the headspace of this being an actual gameboy-era game this stops bothering you as such things were par for the course in most older games as well.
The gameplay is... nothing special. Really, I would almost call it boring, but it did manage to keep me mildly entertained for about six hours so that would be somewhat disingenuous. The game has two main mechanics going for it: shooting ink to immobilize enemies, letting you jump on them to do platforming that would be otherwise impossible and hats that alter your shooting style. The first mechanic is what really carries this game, without it this would be a plain 'ole regular platformer that would probably feel even blander, however the game really fails to utilize this mechanic in new and exciting ways. Once you've beaten World 2 you've pretty much seen everything there is to it and the only things that will change are how many times you actually need to shoot an enemy to properly immobilize them, which does nothing to enhance the gameplay and only serves as an annoyance. In fact, this game has a lot of annoyances, like the fact that every time you die you lose the hat you're currently wearing and the only way to get it back is to take it from a checkpoint (you can only recover one hat this way btw.) or finish the stage you're currently in to go into another stage and get it from the hat NPC. Not to mention there is always only one checkpoint per level and dying in a pit doesn't always leave you in a good position to run all the way back to it. Seriously, why? Why couldn't you just let the players have all the hats in their "inventory" and freely swap between them or something of that sort? This is less bad in the beginning of the game, as most hats basically just have the same effect but make you shoot different looking objects or make your shots have different trajectories, 99% of which are so insanely gimmicky you will never actually find them useful in any situation whatsoever. Legitimately, the default shot your character has is the best in the game by far, there is absolutely no reason to put on like 90% of the hats beause they will either do nothing or actually hinder your gameplay. The only hats that are even worth paying attention to are literally the first one you get, which grants you one extra hit before death, and the upgraded version of that which gives you two hits. Still, like I said before this wouldn't be so bad if you didn't actually need any hats to progress in the game, and for the most part when you DO need a hat the game is kind enough to not take it away after a death... provided it gives it to you in the first place. Sometimes, however, you'll be faced with challanges in stages where you're not provided with the right hat for the job, meaning you'll have to actually carry it throughout the level to the place where you need it, hoping you don't get hit on the way there because if you do you'll have to run all the way back to the checkpoint (if possible) and then hope you don't get hit again when running back where you were heading in the first place. It's tedious and unfun, and most of the time you WILL get hit either because of the janky hitboxes, unexpected enemy behaviour, or simply because you've started being so fed up with the game you started being sloppy which will just make you even more frustrated. This game really is not that hard, I've been playing on the medium difficulty where you only get one hit by default and I've never gotten stuck on a section for longer than around 5-7 lives. However, while not hard, the game does like to throw just barely avoidable ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ at you like fish and birds jumping at you off the edge of the screen, or jumps that look deceptively easy but will actually throw you into spikes because you bumped your head on a corner. I don't consider that difficulty, it's just another annoyance. Speaking of annoyances, here's another hat-related one: the button the game tells you "swaps" your active and stored hats doesn't actually do that, in fact it only discards your active hat and makes your stored hat your new active, but then when you pick up the discarded hat it becomes the active one again. That means that whenever you actually want to swap your hats, you need to discard them both, then make sure to pick up the one you DON'T want first, then finally pick up the one you actually want. Fun.
Lastly, the level design is... bland. There's just no way around saying that, the levels feel very repetitive and same-y. None of them really stand out in my memory and a lot of them just blend together into a blur. The only exceptions might be the "special" levels signified by the castle doorways on the world map, but even then those usually go for long enough that parts of the level start to blend in with themselves. Generally, I think this game could actually gain a lot by "trimming the fat" so to speak. There are a lot of levels where nothing interesting happens at all, you just move from point A to point B in the exact same enviorment you were in the level prior, with the exact same platforming challanges, just in different places or with slight variations and not even the story gets progressed in any way at all. Those kinds of levels you could completely cut out of the game and nothing would be lost, in fact I'd argue that it would improve the game by letting the other, actually meaningful levels stand out more instead of being sandwiched between complete filler that shares the same coat of paint.
All in all, I wish the best to the developers, but this just ain't it.
