Relevant to Sonic: Fotonica

Most of my gaming news comes through a pretty narrow selection of youtube channels and the occasional hit off my otherwise trump-riddled facebook news feed, which tends to overlap with google news feed and complaining media isn't what I was going to get into. Anyway, I mostly watch superbunnyhop, wish I could enjoy his podcast but one of the trip is a donger, and then I get the rest from Super Best Friends and a bit of Total Biscuit, who is also a bit of a donger but at least a focused one.

I mean I get you want to talk about protecting the consumer and all the menu options and FOV sliders, but sometimes I kinda wish you could just click on a video and here a review. And sometimes you can so... Anyway, Fotonica got played on the 2BF's youtube channel. The game didn't look super amazing, but it looked like a 3d running game, so I picked it up as a method of contrasting with the Sonic games.

At its core Fotonica is one of the simplest titles you'll ever play or look at. It has one button, and that button is Goes Fast. Upon clicking the goes fast, you go Goes fast. When you release, you jump, and if you click again while jumping you attempt to force toward the ground to try to Goes fast once more. The game's visuals are complex wireframes, but not much beyond that, and the gameplay is...

Something alright.

The game relates back to Sonic because it creates longevity through levels which must be learned through muscle memory and rote memorization. Player skill is largely irrelevant; the game under-explains its mechanics and you're often left wondering what you were supposed to do. It also goes fast, beautifully fast, but then abruptly it doesn't, You don't so much die as fall off, and unlike Sonic, the game instantly restarts when you hit another button, although for whatever reason it's the Back button on the xbox one controller which feels a little awkward as that hand's side of the controller isn't otherwise in use.

One plus is the game has an excellent, minimalist score that frames the weird atmosphere beautiful. It's not beepy boop chip tunes, but gentle and enticing techno. It lends an airy sense of tranquility the game's design does not carry with it. Fotanica, you see, is not about player skill in the least - you are incapable of seeing the things you're going to respond to, so once you have the basics down you see little improvement - it is entirely about rote memorization. You can only get better at this game through replaying levels, though there's a period of learning how to master the jumps.

The game touts exploration as a feature, but I don't think that has any real meaning. The terrain is intentionally flat and devoid of substance; which is beneficial to the design, but offers nothing to the brain. The levels are all around the same difficulty, eventually you memorize them, or more likely, eventually you join me in getting bored. That being said, if you can get it in a bundle or the price tag doesn't bother you, I think there's a unique - if short lived - experience here.