I didn't have very much experience with Nifflas' games, but Ynglet caught my eye with it's really distinct visual style. After playing it, I'm definitely going to be checking out his other work. Ynglet has a really meditative feel to it, even on the highest difficulty (literally called "too difficult") it still manages to not strain the player the same way many "hardcore" platformers can. I think the nature of the game being a platformer without much in the way of tight precision movements, instead being more about placement and understanding of the puzzle-like stage design, contributes heavily to the relaxed nature. There's also the element of the game not exactly being a "platformer" you actually travel through these kinds of water bubbles and bounce off walls to get where you're going. The closest comparison I can make to Ynglet is something like...NiGHTS Into Dreams floaty aerial movement, give it a dash move like Celeste, and place it inside the context of deliberately designed puzzle platformer, it's a really unique concept and I think the game really runs with it. The main game highlights the explorative factor of the mechanics and controls, while the bonus world goes real hard on challenging short levels. Both worlds offer the chance to get a lot of mileage out of it's unique mechanics, I really like the walls and floors that you pass through with a dash, but when ran into normally will bounce you off instead, I've used those to get some crazy height to skip major chunks off of levels. The music is another highlight, it's all extremely reactive to all your inputs, apparently it was made using algorithms (tho don't ask me to explain how) it gives a very interesting structure to the soundscape of the game and adds a lot to that meditative quality. I'd really recommend giving it a shot, it's super fun to 100% and it's pretty short while still having a lot to do, high recommendations here.

Reviewed on Apr 29, 2023


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