Georifters (Nintendo Switch) Review

Good gameplay will always overcome lacklustre music or sub-par graphics, but an ugly aesthetic can be damning. The right song doesn't just foster atmosphere, it can reflect what's happening on-screen at the time. Similarly, the right aesthetic can do wonders for a stage, in some cases making a level's design flaws forgivable. When everything comes together as it should, strong presentation will elevate any game. Unfortunately, this isn't the case for Georifters.

Busy Toaster's platformer is visually sloppy. Stages are ugly, drab, and instantly forgettable thanks to unmemorable level design. Character models have far too much detail in their face for how small their bodies are, and the general art style's soft colour palette only serves to clash with everything around it. The end result is a platformer that doesn't look good either in motion or completely static.

What's especially a pity is how conceptually sound platforming is. Rather than focusing on action, the main story plays up puzzle solving. Each level has a set of crystals for the player to collect, all of which are typically out of the way and tied to a set piece that's less a challenge of skill and more basic awareness. Not every crystal needs to be collected for players to advance, but there are rewards for nabbing them. Levels themselves are segmented into sets of stages, chopping up gameplay into bite sized segments.

Mechanically, the bones are there for a compelling platformer. Double jumping is smooth, players can pull walls towards themselves to create new pathways, punch blocks in order to force a path, or outright flip platforms. Unfortunately, levels are fairly boring. Crystals are scattered with enough variety, but backgrounds are dull and the music is too droning too often. Gameplay becomes a dull affair in spite of sound mechanics. Of course, the issues here go beyond just poor presentation. Levels leave little for audiences to chew on in terms of platforming, and the creativity of the best puzzles are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of low-quality stages.

If nothing else, Busy Toaster knows how to reward gameplay. The vast majority of crystals feel like busywork, but they play a role in unlocking a wide breadth of cosmetics and even additional characters. There's a commendable amount of customisation at play where even if the core design isn't compelling, there's still some in-game incentive to power through. It's also worth pointing out that gameplay does shine brighter when it comes to multiplayer. Playing with a friend feeds into an inherent chaos where progress is never simple. Players are free to work together, knock each other back, or just go wild while ignoring the main stage. At the same time, this speaks to one of Georifters's greatest flaws: a lack of conscious design.

Busy Toaster's platformer is filled with strong mechanics and the multiplayer plays up freedom, but the core experience is unfocused. Players are left to their own devices with no real level design to guide them. Puzzles aren't mentally rewarding to solve and platforming is almost never challenging. Wrapping the whole package together, Georifters is simply an eyesore. Overpriced, hard to look at, and a mediocre playthrough all around, audiences are better off rifting elsewhere.