Ink is a simple 2-D platformer with an “ink”-teresting twist.  It’s available to download on PS4, Xbox One, and PC (reviewed on PS4 here).  You play as a simple little white square, and all you can see in each level initially are your character and the door you must exit.  But as you move and jump along, you’ll splurt out ink everywhere that’ll cover the surface of walls and floors that you can climb and run on.  It may take you several tries to find the right path to the door, but luckily you get unlimited lives and the ink will stay when you die.

Even though you start out each stage totally in the dark, luckily stages don’t get too much bigger than one or two screens horizontally or vertically.  You can only hop and do a double jump, but you can also climb up walls while jumping like Mega Man X.  Some stages have rectangular enemies you must hop on to defeat, and when there are enemies on a stage, you have to hop on them all to open the door.  After a couple dozen levels, you’ll fight a boss, which just looks like a regular enemy just bigger and with more varied attacks.  There are also hidden coins in stages for you to find as an extra challenge.

The game is all right, but play control feels a little loose and slippery, like you’re running around on wet ink.  So maybe that’s what they were going for.  It can be frustrating when you die a lot, especially on stages where floors and walls have spikes on them that you can’t see, but I think the game is meant to be like that and you do get unlimited tries.  If you enjoy extra hard platformers like Super Meat Boy, you may want to check this one out as well.

Kid Factor:

If you hit enemies or spikes, your square will just explode into an inky mess.  So violence is pretty minimal since everything is just geometric shapes.  Younger gamers may find the high challenge frustrating, though.  Ink is rated E for Everyone.

Tags: Game Reviews