Type:Rider

A lot of thought went into the artwork, graphics, and gameplay. Unfortunately, for a game that uses the history of typography, and hence language, as its universe, it's a little disappointing that as much attention didn't go into the written parts (or got lost in translation? Either way.) There are typos, misspellings and bad grammar. Parts of it are not well written or edited, which at times made them seem more like info-dumps than essays, and made processing the information uneasy. Hence 4 stars rather than 5. I was occasionally frustrated by the difficulty, esp. with the bonus level. When there is too much luck rather than skill involved (i.e. when spinning obstacles are facing the wrong way) and you have to repeat over and over and over it ceases to be fun. There is a very simple and elegant control mechanism - touch one side of the screen to move and the other to jump. However, it could use one more element to give you a bit more control. Despite that, I did enjoy it and recommend it for the creativity, unique mechanics, length, great soundtrack and immersive quality.

What a beautiful game - a beautiful, frustrating, and altogether wonky way to spend time. I've been putting off reviewing for a while now because I've been vacillating between 5 stars and 1. As a typophile, the gorgeous graphics and the (somewhat disjointed and poorly spaced) histories are incredibly engaging and I look forward to each new font and font developer. Finally a game aimed at me! 5 stars! However, I am no gamer and it took me quite some time to figure out what the hell was going on with the controls. Ditto for the levels. After muddling though, it was a relief to read blogs and reviews complaining of the same control issues. This needs to be addressed but because progression is possible, it's not critical. What really prompted me to finally write this review was/is the absurdly frustrating tracking of levels. Unless I am missing a simple "save" button or command, this game is unable to track my progress accurately, thus causing much frustration and waning interest. I've gone though 1/2 a level and stopped then was brought back close to the same spot with all my collections intact upon resuming. On other levels (Clarendon) no matter how far I progressed, each time I resumed play, I was brought back to the beginning and had lost all my letters, ampersands and asterisks. CRAZY making! While this really should be a two until the bugs are worked out, it's a three because of its sheer beauty.

A lovely way to spend some time. The levels are challenging and lovely, and the educational element is really quite creative. However, I've gotten stuck a few times - and have had to completely re-do some levels, as a result. This feels like an oversight on the developers' end, as I'm completely unable to remove myself from some spots. For the most part, this is when both sides of the "dots" get stuck on the upturned edge of a letter. This happened twice on the Didot level! It's very frustrating to make progress, only to have to start it over again, only to be caught on the same spot the second time around. Will a future update fix this?

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I really want to like this. but the great moments are few and far between. Some moments are just pretentious. Most of the game can be powered through without much real challenge. Some gameplay obstacles are extremely creative and well crafted, but they're immediately repeated with little variation. The "unlocked content" is best ignored; I'd like to think it's interesting to someone, but face it: anyone interested in font history already does. Players launch this app for a challenging game, not for marginally educational and clumsily-presented sidelines. I hope this will be built upon. This is a great start, but get some level designers who have some experience. Make it obvious to the player when you're supposed to drop a lower level and when that drop will kill the player. And make the lecture pages optional, something that can be easily ignored.

The game is simple enough in premise yet challenging enough in practice to keep your entertained for short bursts and long hauls. The graphics are so beautiful and the music so pleasant that it's easy to forget that there is an educational modus at the heart of the game. The only glitches I've come across is that the speed of the game slows down by waterfalls or any other processor-gobbling obstacle and the game freezes if you try to read a recently captured asterisk entry while in the process of dying. However, I still recommend this gem of a game for a new-found fascination with typography (not to be confused with topography :)