Thanks to The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild for the review code

Title: Deleveled
System: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Price: $9.99
Release Date: 09/10/2020

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Presentation

Another day, another minimalist platformer, and you know the drill with these, as I’ve played so many other games with this art style that I have no need to recite myself. It’s a simplistic, flat 2D look with shapes and pleasing colors, and the menus get the job done here.

For the soundtrack, not much to say there either, since its composed of generic 8-bit chiptunes with not much to mention. They’re inoffensive, but also heavily forgettable.

Gameplay

Deleveled is a simple 2D platformer, where you take control of two cubes moving in sync, and having to guide them to press buttons scattered across each level, to open the exit to the next stage.

This is done by simply moving around and taking advantage of the dual-sided nature of the stages, since one cube will be on the top side, while the other will be on the bottom, and if one of the cubes falls high enough to bounce the other cube, that can be used as platforming, which is vital to solving the tricky platforming needed to reach certain buttons. Once both cubes are on buttons in sync, you press the A button and are taken back to the starting point to hunt the other button pairs, repeating until the exits open.

While it may seem as if there’s no hazards to impede you, there are definitely plenty of ways to get stuck and fail the star requirement, including but not limited to falling off a platform and colliding with your other half, to getting stuck and being unable to bounce up to a button or platform, which requires a stage reset with the B button. You have unlimited tries to reach the buttons, but you’ll be unable to obtain the star for the stage unless you do it all in one go. Gain more stars, and you’ll unlock a harder bonus level for each world, as the game gets more and more difficult, with World 2 offering a ton of resistance early on.

And to be blunt, that’s all to Deleveled. There are a lot of worlds to play, and plenty of challenging stars to obtain, but the gameplay is simple and easy to pick-up-and play… A feeling I’ve felt and seen time and time again, over and over again until the end of time. Once you get the hang of this game, you really won’t feel much of any reason to stick around, or be wowed by anything, since this game is overly simplistic. The levels are tricky and fun to finally solve, yes, but there’s not much else to them, and I feel as if I’ve played games like this dozens of times before.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Deleveled is a paint by numbers, minimalist platformer, entering a swamped genre with not much on offer. The controls are fine, the puzzles are pretty tricky, and the concept is fine, but there really isn’t that much to write home about with Deleveled.

I give Deleveled a 5 out of 10.