The universe needs saving, and it’s up to intergalactic heroes Wira and Taksa to save the day.  This is a 2-D puzzle platformer where you switch between the two characters to solve puzzles, avoid obstacles, and defeat enemies.  Wira is fast and can avoid dangers easier, and while Taksa is slower, he has a hammer for defeating enemies.  The game is available on most current consoles and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.

The first thing you’ll notice about the game is how they jump.  Instead of just coming back down to the ground, they’ll switch to the ceiling and walk on that until you jump again.  It kind of reminds me of an old NES rarity called Metal Storm.  You can look up and down to see what’s above and below you, which is wise since many times you’ll have to jump to the ceiling or floor beyond the screen.  Wira moves much quicker and makes it easier to avoid obstacles.  Taksa is slower and bigger, but you can press a button to make him swing a hammer to defeat enemies blocking your way.  There are hidden items to collect for an extra challenge, and if you lose all your energy, you’ll start at the last checkpoint you reached.

My main problem with this game are the controls.  Jumping from floor to ceiling is hard enough to get used to, but sometimes you’ll switch and have to jump from one wall to another.  When this happens, you still press left and right to move up and down the wall, which makes no sense.  Why not switch it so you press up and down to walk up and down walls?  And the button placement for jumping, switching characters, and using the hammer felt odd to me.  And even though you have an energy bar, most of the time you get killed in one hit by an unseen danger anyway.  Because of all this, I lost interest in this one pretty quickly.

Kid Factor:

Wira & Taksa: Against the Master of Gravity is rated T for Teen with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Violence.  I really don’t know why this got a Teen rating.  When you lose all your energy, you explode and say “Argh” or “Oh no” and that’s it.  Reading skill is needed for the text, and younger gamers may find this one too difficult.

Tags: Game Reviews