Game Review: Ibb & Obb

Level Hub

Ibb and Obb is puzzle platformer with a twist: cooperative gameplay. While it is possible to play this game solo, it’s built to be played cooperatively with a friend. Cooperative gameplay has a magical property that can turn a mediocre game into a good game, and thats exactly what it does in the case of Ibb and Obb.

Gameplay

Some goals require you to get lucky

Ibb and Obb’s gameplay is about half logic puzzle and half action/timing. The has but only simple controls; directional movement and jump. The creators managed to (somewhat) successfully turn the limited controls into interesting puzzles. Once you and your friend discover and communicate the correct solution to a puzzle, execution of the solution is sometimes difficult and ends up being half of the battle. This is not helped by the fact that some mistakes will force you to restart the level to get a perfect score in the level.

Inexplicably, some game elements exist to create frustration

I do have several complaints about the gameplay. Firstly, you must set your screen to a 4:3 ratio in order to see everything you need to be able to see, this is not noted anywhere and we only discovered it due to the use of an old monitor. My second issue is that some of the ‘skill’ based areas of the game rely on almost pure randomness to pass. Another issue I have is with the darkness level near the end of the game. The darkness level feels quite out of place and forces you to just waste time trying to see the level instead of playing it. Lastly, perfectionists will be annoyed in their attempts to get maximum score for a level. To do so, you must to collect little diamonds. The problem is that the diamonds have a limited lifetime after spawning. If you miss them, which is quite easy with multiplayer latency, you have to restart the level and try again.

The Art

Simplistic Art

Unfortunately the initial impression given is that the authors did not care about the art. The main characters are very simple in appearance and the early levels are visually bland. Eventually the art becomes interesting, colorful, and geometric, which is much easier to appreciate.

The biggest flaw is in the design of the main characters, which you end up spending all your time staring at; Ibb and Obb look like poor renderings of Pacman ghosts and they ruin every screenshot of the game.

The Story

Maybe I’m missing something, but I detected no story within Ibb & Obb. There are a few places where you destroy factories, but it doesn’t seem to be a major theme.

Overall Score: 78/100

This score is propped up by solid cooperative gameplay, with its few flaws pulling it back down a bit. Even without fantastic art or a story, Ibb and Obb is still a decent puzzle game, you’ll probably experience a few eureka moments and pulling off a skillful feat always leaves you feeling good.