Here’s something completely different.  How about a 2D single screen precision platformer where you’re SUPPOSED to die?  In Ghost Teen: Escape from Limbo, you control a kid character who must collect a key and unlock a door to pass the level.  But if you get hit, you turn into a ghost and can fly and pass through certain walls.  You’ll have to do this to solve puzzles and bypass obstacles, but you must touch a gravestone in the level to turn back into the kid so you can exit the door.  The game has retro styled black and white graphics that remind me of the games I used to play on my Apple ][+ computer.  It’s available on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.

As the kid, you can run and jump and that’s it.  In this form, you can collect keys and open doors. When you get hit, you turn into the ghost, who can fly and pass through certain walls.  But you can’t pick up keys in this form nor can you exit the level.  You do have a limited number of times you can get hit, so keep that in mind.  If you lose all your hearts or touch the bottom or top of the screen (like falling into a pit), you’ll have to start the level over again.  The thing about this game is that it’s not too terribly hard.  There are 50 levels in all and I managed to beat all of them with only a couple giving me trouble.

My only main problem with the game is that when you push blocks as the teen, they kind of have a physics based feel to them and may not fall into place the same way every time.  In a precision platformer such as this, that can be problematic.  In the third to last level, you have to push a block a long distance and hope it falls into the right spot to flip a switch, and I don’t know how I got past that level once, but I did.  Other than that, this is a pretty interesting gameplay idea, just could’ve been fleshed out a bit more.  Oh yeah, and there’s no ending after you beat all the levels, so that’s disappointing.

Kid Factor:

Ghost Teen: Escape from Limbo is rated E-10 with an ESRB descriptor of Fantasy Violence.  When you get hit by spikes or touch an enemy, you turn into a ghost, and when you lose all your energy the ghost floats up and you must restart the level.  Reading skill isn’t needed but younger gamers may have trouble with the difficulty.

Tags: Game Reviews