Puzzle games come in all forms and seem to continue to find new ways to be crafty and confusing as more titles emerge. One of the latest titles has come from Kittysoft Studios called Marty Thinks 4D and this has been quite the difficult game!
Really going outside of the box and bringing in the concepts of fire, triggers, buttons, time travel, and other challenges all while having enemies to thwart off makes their challenge an interesting spin on the entire platform/puzzle genre.
Story
Jump into the role of Marty, a small robot on a journey to find his creator, Dr. Mobious. After disappearing, he has become concerned that his human creator may have become obsolete! With the aid of time travel, Marty is able to step through time and work together with past versions of himself to overcome any challenge he faces as he tries to save Dr. Mobious.
Gameplay
Starting off simple, you begin with simple puzzles and figuring out how the platforming aspects work. While you figure that part out, they throw in a few easy puzzles that just show you how the different triggers work and how to use it all together. Don't let the beginning fool you, the challenge ahead gets pretty rough!
Trying to figure out each of the puzzle levels is sometimes really difficult, but know that there is always a way! Sometimes it is just hard to tell what to do since you may need some teamwork for them, but you are the entire team. Thanks to the addition of the time portal, you will be able to use Marty multiple times for a single puzzle and as you progress through the game, more time travel Marty's become available to aid you in solving the challenge.
There are plenty of other aspects than just finding the right trigger and getting them all pressed or lit up, as there will be platforming obstacles that will also make the challenges even more difficult to complete. From moving to spinning platforms, often triggered from a button or flame, there is going to be multiple challenges to overcome in order to reach the end!
The platforming and puzzle combination being hard enough, you will find that some levels also contain enemies that will either be simply a dangerous distraction or could even be the trigger itself in which you must defeat specific ones in order to move forward. So be ready to shoot your fireball a crap ton, because it gets pretty intense at times!
The end of each area will be a main challenge event, but will differ in each area from a boss to increasingly difficult puzzle, be ready to be put to the test because there is no next area without completion of the last level!
I specify this because there is the option to skip levels by buying the next level open with 100 chips, which can be collected in literally every level and used to buy hat accessories from the hat shop. I didn't see much other use for the chips than accessory purchases and level skipping, but still fun to collect them all to get that completionist gratification.
Sounds
The music is a fitting upbeat to majority of the areas and changes in style according to which zone of the game you are in at the time. The announcer that tells the story of Marty as you make progress in the game is a bit comical as well!
Graphics
The cartoonistic graphics were very fitting for this silly-story, but rather difficult game. It was easy to depict what zone of the game you were in at all times, differentiate between the enemies and their attacks, along with easily visible puzzle pieces such as buttons.
Replayability
Other than trying to complete the game faster or find the shortcuts in each level, there isn't much reason to go back through and play it again as all the puzzles and challenges are going to be the same.
What Could Be Better
It would of been nice to have a hint option for when I got stuck to help me figure out how to beat the level. Instead I found myself skipping a level here and there because I couldn't figure out what to do in the last one.
Final Verdict
It is a fun yet challenging game that any fan of puzzle/platformer titles should add to their game list! I enjoyed my time playing through it and even though I got frustrated at time, it was still an fun game to play! I look forward to seeing what else comes from Kittysoft Studios.
