Swindler is a new and challenging puzzler with awesome rope-physics that allow your character to sway and escape dangers while trying to recover a chest of coins. The idea of the game is very simple, as well as the objective, but each level promises to be a new challenge. Many puzzle games are too easy, but this game actually challenges you to think for a moment, but also caters to the people who want a game to be a bit of action as well, including monsters and bombs, that’ll kill you if you’re not careful. Swindler is extremely fun and held my interest longer than any other game I’ve played in a few weeks! If you like puzzlers then this is the game for you!

Swindler

The game opened up with too much difficulty. In the first level, as you’re adjusting to the controls and learning how they work, the game is already tossing a decently sized level at you with enemies. While not very challenging once you’ve completed a few levels, this was certainly something that most people thought was discouraging. The later levels were also challenging, but not in the sense that you didn’t know the controls well enough, or lacked experience in the game, but instead of a game, that was simply difficulty and well designed, that actually felt rewarding. Many games are too easy, this one though was a nice change. Already, before I was getting out of the single digit levels, I felt a real challenge. What is interesting, is that even levels, at the time of playing them, I hated them, for I would die so many times, I would actually feel the reward of completing them, which is something that I can say that many games don’t achieve. Overall, the game had a good difficulty and I loved it for that.

The gameplay itself is very simple, but the way the developer executes it and then develops it as the game progresses is extremely impressive. The game begins as a rope-physics game, where the character is attached at the end of a line and then moves by swinging. This is a concept that I’ve seen a couple of times before, but I’ve certainly never seen it so well executed. The physics also felt spot-on, which is a big bonus from me. Like i said, the game’s concept is highly developed as time goes on. New enemies are introduces and new blocks arrive. Quickly in the game, switches are introduced and make you touch them to remove a wall that is in your path. The idea that the screen can rotate is also interesting and allows a lot of room for interesting levels. The level design was amazing. Some games seem to toss together levels and then move on to the next one. These levels are obviously well though-out and offer a good challenge. What I was unimpressed with, and this is just one thing, is that some levels, and by some, I mean very few, relied less on thinking and strategy, and more on luck. Overall, for the most part the gameplay is unique to this game and it offers strong challenge and brilliant level design.

One thing that has attracted me to Nitrome, since the very first day that I saw it, was the magnificent pixel art. I am a pixel artist, but the stuff that the guys over at Nitrome come up with is genius. The artwork is sharp and has great color that seems to flow throughout every piece. The animation is super smooth and the little character is cute. I love the rough look that the game is given and the backgrounds are faded to give a good view of the playing area. Overall, the artwork was really good and I love the pixel art style that Nitrome is popular for.

The music fits the game perfectly. It had a bit of mystery and seemingly fit the puzzle theme as well. For the most part, it was quiet and had a very smooth sound, but it also incorporated some eight bit sounds that tied in with the artwork of the game. The sound effects were also a perfect addition to the game and didn’t distract too much for the beautiful music. Overall, the music incorporated nicely with the game and fit into the puzzle theme well.

Swindler

All in all, Swindler is an amazing puzzle game that I high recommend. If you want to be challenged with various puzzles and enemies, that actually feels rewarding, then look no further than Swindler, as it combines both of those into one amazing game that’ll keep you hooked. In review, the game was difficult to learn and get used to the controls, but once you do it just down to a matter of skill and thinking things out in the game. The gameplay is based off a couple of things that I’ve seen before, but it combines in such a way that Swindler is extremely unique and is unlike any other game I’ve played. The artwork, like all of Nitrome’s games that I’ve seen, is pixel-art based and really looks fantastic. Finally, the music works well with the game. Overall, Swindler is one of the best games that I’ve played in a while and I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a great puzzler. Be sure to play it today on Armor Games!

Play Swindler on Armor Games!