Typoman Revised

Typoman is the kind of game that made me reminisce on the past. It's a 2D platformer with such an ingenious concept that it actually made me a little miffed at the laziness found in many old school mascot games. Here's a game that manages to come up with a new and inventive mechanic that fundamentally changes the way it's played. Yet many so many games in the genre were happy to do little more than slap a new animal on the cover and call it a day. But not Typoman, and I knew I was going to have a good time right from the opening prologue.

First released on Wii U back in 2015, Brainseed Factory's clever platformer has finally found its way to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. You play a one-armed hero who is literally made up of the word "HERO." That's the conceit of this world, as many of the obstacles and characters are not only defined by their words, but are actually constructed using the letters. You'll see levers where the word is spelled out, guillotines that say "CHOP" and enemies that tell you exactly how they're feeling. It's a cool concept.

Our Hero's quest is to puzzle his way through three chapters in hopes of locating his lost arm. He'll do this by using the random letters to construct words. Sometimes it's as simple as powering a gate by spelling "ON," while other times you'll need to create a protective shield by forming the word "COVER." There's a lot of this, and practically every puzzle found in the game will involve you sorting through the letters and coming up with the right word.

This mechanic only becomes more complicated as the Hero gets closer to his lost arm. One of the things he'll run into is a word dispenser, which will purposely trick you by offering too many letters. At times he'll need to construct a character that will gobble up the words and spit out the opposite, such as spelling "OVER" and getting "UNDER" in return. All of this is broken up by a bunch of simple platforming sections that are full of floating platforms and flaming barrels.

One thing I like is that the puzzles can be solved in multiple ways. For example, I ran into a section where I could avoid a garbage compactor by spelling "SLOW," making it easy to run past. But later, after spending more time with the letters, I realized I could stop the crusher entirely by spelling "STOP." I ran into a few situations like this, which always made me wonder how many solutions there are for each obstacle.

Click For the Full Picture Archive

If you're not a fan of word jumbles, then chances are you're going to find some of the puzzles to be a real headache. In fact, there are a few towards the end that feel like they are a little too clever for their own good. But even if like spelling out the words, there are still a few problems that keep Typoman Revised from being a must-own platformer.

For one thing, it's insanely short. Even after getting stuck on a couple of obstacles, I still managed to beat the game in about two hours. It only has three chapters, and that end boss fight is way more forgiving than it should be. The developers have answered this criticism with a couple mini-games, but I didn't find either of them to be all that compelling. They're fun if all you want to do is solve word puzzles, but part of the charm of the game is how this is mixed with the platforming and story.

It also feels like the game largely runs out of steam halfway through. I know that may sound contradictory after I just complained about the short length, but I can't help but notice that most of the ideas are being introduced in the first half. By the time we get to the last chapter, it's really just giving us harder versions of what we've already seen before. Part of what I liked about this game is how they were constantly surprising you with new mechanics, but that's largely tossed out the window towards the end.

Click For the Full Picture Archive

Personally, I enjoyed the art design and look of the world. I know a lot of people will compare it to something like Limbo, but this didn't feel as morose to me. It occasionally plays with color and isn't always in silhouettes. That said, it's also not the happiest game, and some people expecting a cheerful experience may be put off by the tone. I liked what Brainseed Factory was going for, and only wish they could have pushed the concept even more.

If you missed out on the Wii U or Steam versions of Typoman, then this brand new PlayStation 4 and Xbox One port is certainly worth your time. That is, unless you hate word puzzles, then you should avoid this like the plague. It still has some lingering problems and I wish the story was more fleshed out, but it has a clever conceit that sets it apart from the other platformers. Typoman Revised is "GOOD," "FUN" and a whole bunch of other words I can spell correctly.