Jo & Momo

Simple platformers can always be enjoyed whenever you have a few spare minutes, because they typically provide you with the same kind of experience. It’s great to see original concepts, but sometimes it’s a lot more comfortable to play something you are familiar with. Thus, arcade games with the occasional simple puzzle are perfect for lazy afternoons.

Jo & Momo is a 2D platformer that takes place in a colorful world ruled by simple rules and populated by a few nasty creatures. Your goal is to make it to the end of each level in safety and help the main character find his love. To make matters more interesting, you have to cooperate with a tiny creature in order to get past a few annoying traps.

This creature can be controlled independently whenever you need to reach otherwise inaccessible places, but it can also serve as a mobile platform to help you achieve difficult jumps. The game world is also riddled with all sorts of buttons and levers that must be activated in order to open gates or unlock the way forward, not to mention the enemies that patrol certain portions of the map.

In case you truly want to complete each level and get the maximum rating, you can also go out of your way to collect all the gold coins, some of which are quite awkwardly placed in order to get on your nerves. Other than the number of stars you are rewarded with at the end of each round, there doesn’t seem to be any use for the coins, which is a bit of a bummer.

The graphics are not bad at all, on the other hand, but they are pretty basic from a technical point of view. Hence, the visuals are very colorful and vibrant, and the animations are quite smooth as well. The same can be said about the sound effects and the soundtrack, but don’t expect anything too memorable, because they were clearly not a priority.

In the end, accessibility is the key word in regards to Jo & Momo, because everyone can pick it up and play with no previous platformer experience required. Moreover, it looks very nice from a visual point of view, so at least you get to relax your eyes as well.