Teeto is the newest game to add itself to this year’s growing list of 3D collecthathon platformers, offering a decent amount to do, varied locations, and an engaging gameplay loop. However, it hurts itself a bit with a lack of polish in certain areas, as well as some frustrating bugs that put a damper on my overall enjoyment. It’s easy to recommend to anyone who enjoys the genre, but some trepidation around its issues is nevertheless warranted.
Teeto’s premise is quite simple. All humans have vanished due to an incursion by monsters called Shadows, and inanimate objects (and animals) have all come to life. A rabbit plushy (with a fun Australian accent) creates you, the titular character, to stand against the shadows, then sends you off to the races.
Teeto’s main ability is transforming to take on the characteristics of specific objects (rocks, water, fire, etc), which you’ll need to use to progress past various obstacles. For instance, the rock ability lets you smash certain interactables, while a flower gives you the ability to swing from a vine at grapple points.
Structurally, the game is divided into four acts with six levels each, with all of them sporting colorful and vibrant locales. The first five levels drop you into either linear environments or more open-ended ones with the simple goal of collecting MacGuffins called Vionite (which you’ll need to open the way to the next act, all of which are represented as islands with doors in a big hub) and reaching the exit door to unlock the next level. The sixth level of each act is a boss battle, which range from just okay to actually quite poor. Both the fourth and final boss battles are wonky chores, but others fare fine.
The controls are mostly standard 3D platformer fare, as Teeto can double jump, dive, attack, use his standard shot ability, and perform abilities for each transformation. Controls can be a bit stiff, and I didn’t like that you can’t gain more momentum by jumping out of a dive, but everything works decently enough.
Well, usually, anyway. A collectible during one level glitched out and couldn’t be collected, meaning I had to abandon my plans to 100% the game. In two other levels (infuriatingly including the final boss), objects couldn’t be absorbed at various points, requiring me to restart them from the beginning.
Teeto will take 6-8 hours to complete, depending on how much you do, and the levels are enjoyable to explore — but the aforementioned lack of polish and bugs do bring down the experience. Luckily, there’s a bunch of fun stuff to collect (and you can buy a large number of costumes to boot), so there’s enough to like about this adventure all the same.
Verdict
Teeto isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty easy to recommend to collecthathon platformer fans. If you count yourself among these and don’t mind some annoying bugs, then it’s safe to say you’ll probably have a pretty good time here.
