Tess

Everyone has bad days every once in awhile, and it’s all about how we get over them and whether we let these days define our lives. Hence, it’s easy to think about it as nothing more than a bad day, but it’s also simple to create destructive patterns and see a downward spiral everywhere you look.

Tess is a girl who needs your help to brighten her mood and find relief after living through a pretty harsh day, and you can help her by overcoming a variety of obstacles. In short, the game is a 2D platformer with many traps and enemies that try to block your path. Obviously, your role is to avoid all of them and make your way to the end of each level as quickly as possible.

The story is pretty unclear and unimportant, but it’s also interesting from a certain point of view. As such, you play the role of Tess, a young little girl who had a bad day and needs something to do in order to forget about it. It’s not really clear how all the monsters along the way are supposed to help, but that’s not for us to think about.

It’s quite difficult to avoid enemies sometimes, especially since they move around and jump all over the place. Granted, their movement is scripted and you can learn the patterns, but even that requires a lot of concentration and quite a bit of work. Thankfully, at least the controls are accurate and responsive, otherwise the whole gameplay would’ve been a lot more annoying.

As for the graphics, the simple color scheme sporting only green and black can get a tad tiring after a while, but it’s not too bad either. The level design is pretty enjoyable as well, at least if you can get used to the lack of any background art or anything like that. On the other hand, you’ll be much busier trying to avoid all the traps instead.

When it’s all said and done, Tess is a pretty nice platformer, even if it lacks diversity and color. However, it has the power to put your reflexes and patience to the test, as well as keep you engaged throughout the adventure.