‪#‎EGX2014‬ Hands-On Preview: Poncho (PC)

This is my first post about my time at Eurogamer Expo 2014 and I decided to write it quickly because I played a game that was worthy of checking out and of some praise (plus its a little time sensitive). The game is called Poncho and it’s an open world puzzle-platformer with oodles of charm, but I don’t see it getting the recognition or attention it deserves – hence the post.

Let me start from the beginning. Wondering the floors or EGX I passed Delve Interactive’s Poncho a couple of times. I was rushing about between interviews and appointments so it wasn’t until the afternoon that the pace calmed and could soak in everything else going on. At the corner of the Indie Rezzed zone and Leftfield collection was this (I assumed) ‘cutesy’ 2D platformer. Loitering for a moment to repack my bag (damn those The Evil Within boxes are big), I overheard one of the co-creators talking with a visitor enthusiastically and as a spare seat become available I jumped straight in.

The premise is that you play a little poncho sporting robot (hence the game name), that wakes up and goes looking for his ‘maker’ in a post apocalyptic world full of wild tribal robots who occupy the overgrown forests and empty cities after humanity has been gone for centuries. If this wasn’t a cool enough premise on its own the games mechanics had me hooked. The niche beyond just being another platformer is that little Poncho can jump between three parallax planes (foreground, middle and background). To paraphrase another game it has you ‘thinking with depth’ to solve puzzles and find gems that allow you to purchase keys to unlock further new areas to explore. Presentation was also strong with sprites looking lovingly created (the ‘flasher’ trading robot is my favourite), as are the objects that inhabit the game and its environments.

Despite the demo being very short, it was certainly enough to whet my appetite for more of the Fez-esq experience.

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Coming back to the ‘time sensitive’ comment, Poncho is on Kickstarter and only has just over two days remaining to reach its goal. If you can’t afford £1 (preferably more) to give towards the project please at least give it a thumbs up to it on Steam Greenlight.

If my words fail to convince you to check it out this game out, then going back to the Kickstarter or support on Greenlight, you can also grab the alpha demo here and try it for yourself!