What once was a collection of lovely worlds, each dedicated to various holidays, Christmas, Easter, Halloween to name a few, has now been taken over by a dark force, but there’s a lone survivor, called Blink the Bulb, although to me his head looks more like a lemon. It looks like it’s up to him to battle through as to win back his home.
If you are a fan of the 16bit, floppy disk bound. games from the past such as ZOOL, then you’ll immediately wax nostalgic at the game – the inspiration is strong here. It’s even in a 4:3 ratio, and that’s at full screen! The worlds are colourful despite being taken over by a dark force, and the themes are easily noticeable. Eggs for Easter, skulls for Halloween, etc.
The story is explained through the intro cutscene, and basically, the Jubilee Realm is a distant universe that has been formed from the memories of the human races recollections of holidays. These memories were what shaped the landscapes, they also shaped the inhabitants. As time has passed however, a dark force has taken over the realm. That dark force is in fact spiteful memories of holidays, named, Holidaemon, six ruthless beings born from negative energy. Blink the Bulb with his lemon shaped head, in fact, I think he may be a lemon…is the lone resident from Winter Land, and has set off to defeat the Holidaemon and return the realm to what it once was.
“… it stands out from the crowd, it’s like stepping into a time machine, but it sure is a lot harder than the games those 90’s gamers are familiar with.“
It’s designed to look and feel like those 16bit arcade games, and it certainly feels that way. The vibrant colours, the sprite animations, the many levels of platforms, the side scrolling rush, the Mario style pipes, and even the controls. The controls are a simple two button + movement keys. Jump and shoot are pretty much all you can do. Tap to fire stars that will only fly a few pixels in front of you before falling through the map to the depths of the world. Tap and hold to charge the star and fire a big star that will shoot off, left or right.
The only thing I don’t like about the controls is that the overall speed of which, Lemon Head Blink runs, and instead of landing with a halt, he slides, which makes navigating the smaller platforms not only a challenge, but a big frustration. Not even the double jumping function can help, in fact it’s more of a “safety net” that makes you believe you can quickly jump one extra jump and make it back onto the platform you just overshot. Doesn’t work that way though.
I do think the reason it’s so fast though is because it’ll end up becoming a quick run, unlike games like ZOOL and Mario where you can still go quickly, but your character moves at a pace you can keep up with, this just slides on by and your play essentially becomes a speed run.
I know you’re probably meant to be getting annoyed with the enemies within the game for stopping you from progressing, but I can’t help but utter a few curse words at the developer for creating some insanely hard obstacles to overcome. I spent ten minutes trying to get up a gap with some bouncy walls, and the enemies can be hard to get over, and can be quite annoying when you’re on a speed run style rush. Obviously I mean this in good spirits, but seriously, this game has led me to some rage quits where after only a minute of calming down, I’m booting it back up again.
“The only thing I don’t like about the controls is that the overall speed of which, Lemon Head Blink runs, and instead of landing with a halt, he slides”
The worlds are massive and really, the music should have taken that into account, instead it feels like there’s a loop going on throughout the whole level, a loop that only changes during a boss battle, or on completion of said long levels. Several beats, and maybe more traditional 16bit styles would have fared well and not made that nagging repetition wear away at the novelty of the long levels. That’s a fact though, the worlds are huge and they run on a day and night system where the enemies will change personalities depending on what time it is.
There are also twenty different items to collect that are labelled as, “Passive”, these aren’t needed but they endow perks and boons for a limited amount of time. The types of effects are all related to whichever holiday world you’re in. Zombies, invincibility, etc. In addition they change up your attacks from the flaccic stars I mentioned earlier. As you progress you unlock more ways to attack, and not only that, you can unlock features to add to your character and improve yourself and hope it keeps you alive longer!.
Blink looks fantastic, it stands out from the crowd, it’s like stepping into a time machine, but it sure is a lot harder than the games those 90’s gamers are familiar with. If you’ve got the patience and enjoy the classics, this is a fantastic game to add to your collection because it may be brand new to our eyes, but it sure looks like an oldie that has stood the test of time.
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