I wasn’t able to completely finish Poncho… which is appropriate, because the developer has admitted that the game was not completed to their satisfaction, especially the buggy PS4 port. I’m frustrated by the state of the game because it has a nice world and some good ideas.
Perhaps it’s better to think of Poncho as a late-stage “early-access” game, just with the knowledge that it will never be further updated. It’s important to address the realities of the development up-front because it contextualises some of the problems with the game. It’s worth reading the post-mortem blog post from the lead developer Dan Hayes, as well as the comments section for the perspectives of other indie developers. If you’re bold you can also read the Destructoid article about the post-mortem and its respective comment section, where things get publicly ugly as the publisher and developer lay into each other’s failings.
But what is Poncho? Well, it’s an indie pixel platformer. The gimmick that sets it apart is the plane-swapping mechanic. Our squat robotic hero can switch between three parallel planes using the shoulder buttons. Compared to a recent game I’ve played with a similar device, Xeodrifter, Poncho uses this more to facilitate puzzle-platformer style gameplay. When you factor in blocks that also swap planes, or move when you do, things can get tricky.
There’s other interesting things it does. Some levels have an unconventional structure where you can go either left or right, to tackle different screens with different challenges, and you end up wrapping around eventually. There’s collectibles and hidden abilities to find, most of which are optional… until you need a certain colour key and find you need to backtrack. The worlds are also populated with a variety of fun little robots just doing their own thing, which is purely for worldbuilding.
Unfortunately Poncho is plagued by small annoyances, some of which are no doubt to be blamed on the sloppy PS4 port I played, which hasn’t been patched despite the original developer creating fixes which have gone unimplemented. Falling in a pit instantly respawns you on your last safe platform… unless it actually respawns you in an unsafe infinite death loop. Other times block behaviour is unclear and perhaps bugged. Some sections are very punishing by dropping you in an earlier section of the level (more a design imbalance than a glitch). The last straw for me was a particular challenge of moving blocks whose patterns didn’t line up; I could get through most of this demanding section but be unable to pass due to the cycle not allowing me to.
Poncho is at its best when it’s relying on being puzzley rather than trying to be a precision platformer (you can’t even move with the D-pad on PS4, you have to use the analogue stick for this 2D sidescroller; a pet peeve of mine). This isn’t just a case of a game’s vision unable to be realised, combined with a shoddy port; there are more fundamental design issues. However, it is the devs’ first game and I am inclined to forgive it due to the unfortunate behind-the-scenes stories that were offered up, to try and see the positives that came out of this.
I was intrigued by the world and the mysteries of the plot. I enjoyed meeting the characters of this post-human world, from the junkyard’s king and his scattered minions to the robot tribe unwilling to admit they’re machines. I liked testing my brain to think in terms of three concurrent 2D planes (it’s a shame there was no 3DS port). Sadly some sour notes dull the shine and the game ends up less than the sum of its parts.
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