Having nothing to do with the Forza series, Forza Polpo from developer MONTE GALLO is essentially a modern take on the classic PS1 first-person platformer Jumping Flash with some management bits added in for good measure. This colorful adventure feels like an old friend and just goes to show that we are ready for a new entry into the Jumping Flash series from Sony and that indie developers understand that fun comes first. In the meantime, we have Forza Polpo to fill those mechanical rabbit holes in our heart.
The game is a simple one. You pilot a small mechanical robot that has survived what seems like the end of the world. Some new Pink Energy source has swept the world in 199X, but when something goes wrong that energy source becomes unstable, and everything using that energy shuts down with 99.9% of the world and the population vanishing. Thankfully, your little robot is so out of date that it wasn’t compatible with the new fancy energy source and leaves you as the only one left to save the world.
In order to do this, you need to complete a series of stages controlling your small delivery robot. You jump around stages working to recover three memory cubes in each stage to open the next stage and gain a little more knowledge about what is going on and how to fix things. Jumping is the name of the game, and you have a triple jump ability to help zoom about stages. You can also glide after jumps so timing and judging distance is vital for your success.
But it’s not quite as easy as it seems. Every jump uses energy and gliding will drain it even more quickly when holding down the respective glide button. You can easily find yourself out of energy at the worst times, forcing you to restart the stage and losing all your progress. To offset this, you can collect Pink Energy pickups which you can use to recharge your energy reserves. These pickups are scattered throughout stages and can also be found in items and enemies, so planning around these is important.
But Forza Polpo is much more than simply jumping as you also have some decent combat abilities to help you out along the way in this single-player adventure. You have a basic shot that can take out enemies, weak objects, and use buttons. Some enemies will only take a single shot and others with a barrage of them to defeat. It’s a fun idea that helps keep you on your toes as enemies can be anywhere. But remember that everything you do takes energy, including shooting, so managing and choosing your shots is important.
One thing that I appreciated about Forza Polpo is that you can grab upgrades to your main weapon from special vending machines and certain enemies in various stages. Not only that, but you can pick up secondary weapons that stack and can help out tremendously. Double shots make combat easier, missiles can take out huge enemies in a single shot, and the mega jump can open up new areas to explore. These little things take a fun little first-person platformer and give it a nice puzzle management twist. You can’t simply jump and shoot and expect to win here.
The visual style is a real treat and takes 1990s Japan and gives it the vaporwave treatment. It’s a blast to jump and glide through stages as future funk music takes you into another world. In fact, the music is so on point that I’d gladly pick up a soundtrack on vinyl to add to my collection in a heartbeat. Everything in Forza Polpo just comes together in a really neat way. That said, there are some issues that might keep some players from having a great time, especially if they are wanting more of a Jumping Flash sort of experience.
While the game works as intended there are issues with the core energy mechanic in use. A lot of the times it feels like it depletes far too quickly for you to really enjoy the aesthetic that the world the team has created. Forza Polpo screams to be explored, but because of the energy system you can’t really do this like you would in Jumping Flash. Everything you do takes energy and you’re constantly fighting against this instead of enjoying the great visuals and fun locations.
Movement is also pretty different from Jumping Flash as you are pretty slow. But the real issue is the jumping itself. Your little robot is very slippery and floaty. I can’t begin to tell you the number of times I died because I slid right off a platform. Missing jumps is a real problem and I felt like I was fighting the game a lot of the time, especially in the later stages when things require more precision.
There are also some weird Steam issues that you will face with VR. Forza Polpo isn’t a VR game and nowhere on the Steam page does it suggest it is. Still, whenever I launch the game it loads and crashes Steam VR, or sometimes it routes audio to any headset that might be plugged in. It’s a very strange error that needs to be addressed. It seems that Forza Polpo was originally intended to be a VR title, something that probably would have made the experience better, but that was changed, and some old code was left behind that is casing issues.
All that said, Forza Polpo is a fun experience that I would peg more towards a puzzle platformer than a Jumping Flash clone. It still manages to scratch that Jumping Flash itch that many of us PS1 gamers have had for decades, and I hope that the team can build off what they have created so far. If there is a sequel, I would lean into the VR thing as Forza Polpo could be something special in VR as there would be nothing else quite like it to compete against.
“Forza Polpo scratches that Jumping Flash itch and shows that the real fun and innovation in gaming is coming from the indie space”
Final Score:
About Author
