Review: Type Rider

The European cultural TV channel Arte innovates and launches its first video game ! Immerse yourself in this fascinating and unique experience to uncover the history and secrets of Fonts & Characters ! Play as 2 dots and travel through the ages of typographic styles and techniques.

Pros:

• Good chunky graphics that are easily comparable to games like Limbo, With their colourful backgrounds, Yet having the main bulk of the game coming at you in black. Its a colour scheme that suits the game very well.
• The sound is both atmospheric and powerful. To experience the game at its best, Use headphones.
• Game supports 360 pad and is the preferred option.
• Has Steam functions such as achievements,Cloud saves and trading cards.
• Platformer with puzzle elements is the order of play here. Wall jump, split your self into to, timed jumps is the general bag here.
• Each book represents a time in the history of the written language. Each book has 4 levels contained in them.
• Within each level you can collect each letter of the alphabet in the given font. Collecting these are not only for purists, For they serve as an excellent indicator as to where you are within the level. You know that by the time you have collected W say, you know you are coming to the end of the level. Collecting asterisk will unlock bonus pages in the book.
• Collect profiles on the people that help create the written word. The game oozes history and its up to you to find all the game has to offer.
• Frequent checkpoints that save anything you have done so far. They are more frequent than you would expect.
• Within some levels you will actually be interacting within pieces of valuable history. In some cases the level IS the piece of work.
• Set pieces are thrown in every now and then are very well done. They mix the game up somewhat. One for example is a on the rails (quite literally) set piece. You must control a mine cart as someone tries to target you with their gun, What ensues is a panic of timed buttons whilst avoiding the ever moving cross hairs.
• Social network integration is enabled, allowing you to share your scores on Facebook or Twitter.
• Later on when you get to the more modern part of history, The game serves up a lot of retro game nostalgia. I wont go into more detail as it as I do not want to ruin the surprise, I will say its worth the wait.

Cons:

• The game starts off very basic and takes a while to build.
• The control of the dots is very awkward at key points in the game. As you basically control one primary ball with the other one dragging along, Timing jumps and wall jumps in particular are hard to pull off.
• It is possible to get stuck within the game levels, Mostly due to the way in which the balls behave.
• If you attack this game as just an out of the box platformer, Then you will find it basic.
• Levels can feel very short and you can easily finish the game in but a few hours.
• Some sort of narration would of been a nice touch.
• Once you have played through it once, There is little to bring you back for more.

In Summary, As a game that also educates you, Its brilliant casual fun. Due to its easy approach and laid back design, You rarely feel cheated. It is a bit on the short side and could of benefited from a few more levels or just longer levels. My only true gripe was wall jumps. They never worked properly and landed up having me smashing buttons and breathing intently. But after all is said and done, The games key point is that its all about the journey as opposed to the end. You will learn things and have fun doing it.