Poinpy review: proceeding now

Our Verdict

With such expertly crafted and satisfying gameplay that it feels like it was made in a lab by Heisenberg, Poinpy is just ridiculously fun to play, offers a huge amount of ways to customise your personal gameplay, and gives you a treasure chest of fun things to discover along the way. Of course, no game is perfect, but if you asked me to point out the best mobile game of the year right now, I’d probably tell you to play Poinpy.

We got a sneak peek at Poinpy, a little game, during Netflix Geeked Week 2022. Poinpy is a vibrant, colorful platformer by developer Ojiro Fumoto, who is most known for creating the incredible Downwell. Players must continually aim higher, much as in the classic Doodle Jump game. Downwell is so nice, in fact, that you may ask yourself, "How do you go up from here?" And it seems that climbing higher is the real solution.

In Poinpy, you take control of the eponymous little blob, Poinpy, who has to get away from an encroaching hungry cat at the bottom of the screen that insists on drinking juice made from the fruits you pick while platforming. The secret is that Poinpy has to feed the cat a certain combination of fruits, or a particular quantity of fruits, and he has to accomplish it all before he touches the ground. This is where the enjoyment comes in, particularly as you advance and unlock additional leaps to utilize consecutively. In order to gather these fruits, you must chain a series of hops and wall jumps to catch the recipe before Poinpy hits the ground.

You must drag your finger downward from Poinpy and target your leap before launching in an unstoppable line using a convenient little arrow to see where the jump will bring you while attempting to acquire several fruits and escape opponents. The arrow doesn't go very far anymore, and because there are a fair number of adversaries scattered around Poinpy's several levels, you have to consider where you could ricochet as you bounce off walls. If you manage to reach straight over one of them, however, you'll be able to stomp down from above, leap again, and carry on the chain without really hitting the ground with a single gratifying tap. You have the means to avoid the lava floor at all costs, yet it is there anyway.

Crucially, every now and then when you're vaulting through this never-ending vertical tunnel of platforms, you come across a vase that, when trodden on just like an adversary, will grant you gold coins. On sometimes, the fruit you discover will glow gold, giving you the opportunity to pick up more cash for your travels. Once you have gathered enough, you may choose one of three power-ups by pulling the lever on a massive gacha machine. These abilities give the game a pleasant little twist. They may offer you an additional jump, for instance, or cause fruit to sometimes appear in pairs. They can also make roaming opponents carry two fruit, or they can make Poinpy jump somewhat further than usual from a wall jump.

Progression can also be found in ascending levels and experience points. At each level, you can earn extra inventory slots for additional powers, another jump (up to ten total jumps that can be chained together), or a ton of coins that can be used to get more power-ups. The game's gameplay loop, which involves launching the game's titular little hero up through the level, bouncing off walls, grabbing fruit, and then quickly pulling back for another jump before you touch the floor while picking up buckets of fruit along the way, is so incredibly addictive that it could be studied in game design classes.

For me, the key things that draw me in are the way you chain strikes and the compulsive drive to get the biggest combination. The game slows down time for a short while (with a gauge indicating how long you have left) when you pull back to angle a jump. This is the ideal amount of time to evaluate the situation while maintaining the excitement of gameplay as you try to string together an enormous fruit marathon to create the mother of all juices. I think that sounds fine on its own. Congratulations on your advancement and experience points for your hard effort. I must admit that Poinpy had me completely enthralled. Getting a 30-fruit combination and a ton of experience points seems like one of my favorite things I've done all year.

The opponent placement may sometimes be unpleasant since they wander about the screen above you and often out of sight, making it difficult to dodge them if you launch with enough power. Once you take off, your only options are to risk ending a combination by stomping down swiftly or using up another leap. Furthermore, landing in a launcher might sometimes provide you a small period of invincibility, but it also limits the amount of time you have to execute a subsequent maneuver. Occasionally, you may encounter adversaries with spikes pointing straight up; in these cases, being struck seems more like poor luck than skill. Feeling betrayed by the seemingly random luck of the run, I stormed out of a few of sessions.

There isn't much more to say about the gameplay, but because most people in the West have access to Netflix accounts and the game is free with them, I strongly advise you to give it a try. After each enjoyable short session, you find yourself drawn back in by the steady drip-feed of new skills. Fortunately, the presentation of everything is very great, with charming pastel colors and a rounded shape for every part of the game that reminded me of James Turner's artwork. Poinpy also has an amazing animation style, with everything seeming just rubbery enough to complement the swift stomp downhill and the subtle squish of juice.

Poinpy's visual style is characterized by its bold, block colors and black outline work, which effectively distinguish each distinct region from one another. The enormous cat that hovers at the bottom of the screen like Jaws, waiting to eat your fruits and you if you make any mistakes, and the adversaries themselves are very attractive, which at times made me feel awful about exploding them into juice. The minimalist design effectively conveys a lot of information while allowing for just enough variety over time to prevent boredom.

Every fruit you gather has a pleasing pop and squelch thanks to sound design. In addition, the infrequent little sparkles and effects that appear when you execute your motions give the already upbeat small game a joyful feel. The soundtrack, which keeps giving off cutesy Animal Crossing vibes and becomes more upbeat as you go through the areas, is another great addition. What is that? Did I mention worlds? Yes, there is a plot, many worlds, and growth in this game—despite the fact that it may seem unending at first. And it's insane, I tell you.

As you go through the stages, you'll come across more challenging new environments with fresh threats and perils. If you keep going, you'll finally come to an odd and overly exuberant climax that seems like a strange but perfectly appropriate reward for all of your previous hard work. This is one of my favorite game endings ever, and I was playing it the whole time with a big idiotic smile on my dumb face. It's amazing, but it veers between different artistic genres, and I just need people to see it through to the conclusion.

But the fun doesn't end there—after finishing the main narrative level, you may access infinite mode, where you can put your abilities to the test. Even better, reaching high scores also allows you to get medals, which are very difficult accomplishments that vary depending on the mode. It seems like a nightmare to try to finish the game in fewer than four leaps, and in endless mode, to grab an average of 20 fruits every chain in only two hops. It will take a genius to pull all of these people in.

Fortunately, the puzzle mode—a set of levels that become available as you go through the game and the worlds those levels unlock—is the last little detail to explain. Solving these puzzles involves extreme accuracy and fast thinking since you have to use a certain combination of leaps and fruits in addition to other criteria. However, they also provide you with all the abilities you need to really succeed at the game. As I discovered when I was attacked by an adversary, it's a fantastic addition and a great diversion after a tough run that destroyed a particularly luscious 30-fruit run.

I'm so glad I discovered Poinpy this year, and I highly suggest it. Aside from a few minor issues, I'll be recommending this joyful and really entertaining game for a long. If forced to choose, I would answer that I would really want to unlock several skins or themes, similar to those in Downwell, but in all honesty, I'm being forced to think of nothing else that I would enhance. You have no reason not to try Poinpy—it's free with any Netflix account, and I wholeheartedly urge you to. This year, it's been the most captivating game I've played, and it serves as a wonderful reminder of what a fantastic mobile game can and should be.