[Review] Putty Pals

Developer: Harmonious Games

Release Date: 10.19.2017

Putty Pals

What, at first, looked like a super cute casual game quickly became the thing of obsession and wonderful frustration. Putty Pals…you have overtaken my life…

Our scene opens with our little blob friends having a wonderful little get together. SUDDENLY, a massive storm appears and sucks up our little friends and flings them on to different continents! No! Not my adorable and fun colored little friends! Now begins the challenge of saving my new little friends!

Can you believe that this fun and challenging game began as a university project as part of the Swinburne University of Technology? It was brought to PAX Australia in October 2015 and quickly became a big hit with the public. Families and young children praised the game, and understandably so…as soon as I began the tutorial, I knew that my kids would get a great kick out of this game.

With the success Putty Pals sad at PAX Australia, the recently graduated development team saw an opportunity and thus…Harmonious Games was born. Developed on the Unity Engine, the game can be ported to almost any platform. Currently, the game is available on Nintendo Switch, Windows PC and Mac. The team hope to announce PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of Putty Pals in the near future.

While I am clearly a die hard fan of Nintendo, it is exciting that Putty Pals is going to see release on all the major systems. The game is definitely well worth the money. While it seems like a simple game, it is quite challenging whether you play solo or with someone else.

Two Blobs. Two JoyCons. Do you see the challenge yet? The left JoyCon controls the Green blob, the right JoyCon controls the Blue blob. The amount of times I fell in to lava because I made the Blue blob jump instead of the Green blob is…embarrassing to say the least (bless that I was playing alone, else my children would have ridiculed me for weeks).

Jump, Bounce, Swing, Stick, Fling your way to success in this great co-op game. Ideally, the game is to be played with two people. You will have to communicate to beat each level, or else you will meet your lava end as I did.

“Cooperative use of bouncing and swinging physics lets players lift each other to new heights”

Yes, you will absolutely have to communicate and work together. I have played quite a few co-op games, but none like this. Placing your blob in the right spot to let your partner bounce off of you provides quite the challenge for sure. While you can play this game solo, I highly suggest playing it as a co-op game. Putty Pals has been built to be your perfect party game.

With graphics reminiscent of Nintendo 64, you’re sure to find a great time with your friends. Ditch the pro controller and use your JoyCon’s to succeed in this great game.

I find the JoyCon’s to be quite…difficult to hold on their own, so I suggest getting some JoyCon Grips to play co-op games. My favorite are the Fast Snail JoyCon Grips.