Book It!

Not every game is designed to allow speedruns, but gamers have a talent to exploit them until they are able to finish games like Half-Life 2 in 40 minutes. On the other hand, other developers like to encourage speedruns, mostly in the case of platformers, but it’s not difficult to see why that’s the case. Even so, responsive controls make or break a platformer regardless of whether you can speedrun it or not.

Book It! is a 2D platformer with fast-paced gameplay mechanics, in which your only job is to keep moving as quickly as possible and jump in order to avoid various obstacles. Whether you have to jump from wall to wall in order to reach a higher section or just keep up with a moving platform, there is always something to rush you along, which is great if you enjoy a challenge.

The game’s story is not very relevant, because it has no effect whatsoever on the gameplay itself. As such, you play as a guy named Plorpleflorp, who is actually some kind of blob, and he is trying to reach a bar named Great Tiki Bar. For some reason he is in quite the rush to do so, which means that you have to keep up with his desire to get drunk.

As mentioned before, tight controls are a must in a platformer, and this is where Book It! kind of disappoints, unfortunately. While the character responds fairly quickly to your input, there is a bit of a slip effect whenever you move or jump, which will cause you to fall on numerous occasions, even if you technically manage to make the perfect leap. You can also control the character in mid-air, but this is an even more annoying and unrefined feature.

It’s possible to use a gamepad or a keyboard as your input device, but then again that matters very little when you consider the fact that there are only three buttons to push. As for the graphics, the environments are not ugly, but the levels can get  a bit repetitive after a while. In fact, sometimes there’s nothing but a few platforms and the sky behind them to look at, which is pretty lazy.

Even if the controls could use some work, Book It! can still be tons of fun if you have a bit of patience. It’s even possible to get used to the slippery surfaces and just account for that extra few steps after making a jump, but it's a shame that you have to.