Shiny is a Platformer by Garage 227 and published by 1C Company. It features robots (yay!) and tight platforming, in equal measure. So how did it stack up?
“Overall, Shiny is a difficult game for me to judge.”
Well, I feel the need to start by being honest. Like almost every Unity game I seem to have gotten all year, controller support is borked. If, like me, you don’t own an Xbox 360 controller, you’re out of luck. I, using every trick at my disposal, couldn’t get my aging Logitech to work. I should probably invest in a new controller.
That said, playing a platformer with keyboard controls is a nightmare. This is not a game made to be played that way, and it showed almost instantly. I was barely two levels in before it became readily apparent I wouldn’t get an accurate read on much of the game this way. So take my assessments of the gameplay with a grain of salt.
The game revolves around Kramer 227, a robot that works in a factory on planet Aurora that makes batteries for spaceships. After humanity abandoned the base, Kramer needs to find a way to save his fellow robots and avoid the apocalyptic scenario that caused humanity to abandon the planet. All of the story is told visually, in a manner similar to Gon, if you’re familiar with the character. This does lead to a slightly confusing moment, but it’s not a big deal. Overall, I consider the decision to do things this way smart; it cuts down on the translation work necessary to bring the game to other markets outside Brazil. I also like the character designs; they bring to mind design elements I was fond of in the 90’s, while being far more articulated.
Visually, the game really brings to mind the more industial or underground levels from the Donkey Kong Country games. The settings tend to be dark, with muted colors that let the characters breathe a little life into the scene. It can, however, get a bit too colorless for it’s own good. That may just be due to the fact that I’m used to a lot of color and saturation in games, though.
The soundtrack is pleasant, overall. There are very few themes that stand out in my mind. That being said, the sound effects are appropriate, and there isn’t anything that might stand out as bad.
The one other big problem I had was performance. For some reason, Unreal Engine games run absolutely awful on my computer. I’ve yet to figure out why. I invariably have to turn everything down to the minimum just to get what would be considered standard, playable performance. Shiny doesn’t have as many issues with this as others I have played, though. But I still had to take things down a bit.
Controller issues aside, the platforming seems reasonable. Getting around levels isn’t a chore, especially as each checkpoint counts as a warp. Objectives never seemed to be too far off the main path through a level, but can be tucked cleverly out of immediate sight. The feel of the platforming is very similar to those mid-to-late 90’s sidescrolling platformers. That can’t just be some sort of coincidence. That said, it’s hard to judge how tight the controls are without a proper controller. I imagine they’re better than with a keyboard.
Overall, Shiny is a difficult game for me to judge. I’m loath to give it a bad score, especially since it seems like it would be a good game otherwise. At the same time, I find that I can’t just give it a free pass. It leaves me wishing developers could just make the native controller support toggleable. As it stands, I can’t recommend it outright. But it may be worth a try if you own a 360 or Steam controller.
Pros:
+ Detailed environments with a dark aesthetic.
+ Platforming seems to be fairly tight
+ Robots
Cons:
– Borked controller support
– Visual storytelling does leave one tiny gap
– Usual Unreal Engine issues for my computer.
“Aside from one major issue, Shiny is a decent platforming adventure.”
3/5
“Good”
*We were provided a copy of this game for review*
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