Ink for the Nintendo switch is not my cup of tea. I want to get that out of the way, along with the notion that my cup of tea is different from yours and yours from mine. I say that because me not liking this game, which I didn’t, does not make it a bad game or one that isn’t worth a try. Ink is bright, colourful, creative and at its heart a fun concept. I just can’t stand platform jumping (and I stink at it).
Developed by Digeratti, Zack Bell Games and Kittehface Software, Ink is a so-simple-it-is-near- impossible indie, throwback game powered by modern gaming technology. You play a cleverly animated little cube that bounces around a mostly blank screen splattering colourful ink to reveal the surfaces you must climb to get to a door. As you hop from one level to the next, the levels become more complex and you face off against other squares and shapes that you must bounce on to defeat before going to your door.
The genius of this game is its simplicity, coupled with the colourful ink effect. The layering of bright colours to reveal platforms and walls is really neat, and if this game were on my cell phone, I’m sure my kids would dig it while waiting for the dentist. On a big screen however, it feels like an Atari game that someone leveled up and put in the Nintendo e-Shop. Now, that isn’t necessarily a knock, because I know retro gaming is in right now, but I’m a guy that was eternally frustrated by the platform genre (Super Mario brothers is impossible and nobody can tell me different). So, for me, Ink was not much fun.
To summerize: Ink is a pretty, neat, little game that offers a platform based challenge just challenging and addictive enough to hook the right kind of gamer.
That kind of gamer just isn’t me.
