Button Button Up! is one of those platformer games that can be described as being just ‘fine’. It’s not going to compete with some of the more accomplished games on the Switch like Celeste or Super Mario Maker 2, but nor should it be completely glossed over. It’s a perfectly serviceable platformer with cute visuals and fun collectables, and is perfectly accessible for younger, more inexperienced gamers. In other words, it’s fine.
The main solo portion of the game sees you explore a group of lengthy linear levels, all of which are split into sections that you can return to at will from the main menu, but – if played in one long session – can feel like a bit of a slog. Your character’s primary ability is that it can turn itself into a button, of all things. Its function within this state varies on the situation at hand; you can effectively latch yourself onto a rotating platform to gain access to higher ground, or use your button form to ward off deadly lasers that would otherwise turn you into dust.
Aside from this, you can also kick various items and characters (yes, characters) to solve puzzles. Other button friends are dotted around the level, and kicking them into the correct position will allow you to proceed safely across gaps or traps. Of course, this is utilised to its fullest extent in the game’s co-op mode, which lets you and a friend work together in an admittedly rather shallow capacity. There’s very little depth to the game, and as such isn’t particularly something that will directly appeal to adults, but we suspect kids would have a blast with it.
Another issue we noticed was some odd jittering in the visuals, and we’ve not quite worked out if this is due to the dodgy frame rate or the weird, stilted animation. Either way, despite the snazzy pixelated graphics, it doesn’t run very smoothly at the best of times and can be rather distracting whether you’re playing on the big screen or in handheld mode. There’s also a ton of cosmetic items to purchase using materials scattered across the levels, and whilst a lot of these look pretty amusing, they don’t particularly serve any purpose otherwise.
Still, like we said, it’s a perfectly fine platformer that will quite easily keep you occupied throughout its relatively short length. It’s not going to win any awards and it probably won’t become your favourite game of the year, but if you’ve exhausted all other stellar platformers available on Switch, you could do a lot worse than this.
Comments 10
Meh, not for me but that's cool. It looks alright for how much you pay for it.
Happy DQXIS day everybody. Going to be a great weekend!
These graphics are painful to look at
Woah you put all the screenshots together this time
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Not good, but not bad.
@AlternateButtons It's a mini review - we're doing these for indie titles that otherwise might not get a shot.
The Visual style is awful. Getting bored of these lazy 'pixel art' games, being a designer myself I know the effort needed to make a game look good as opposed to this type of simplistic pixel art look. It's not a design choice most of the time, it's an easier and cheaper way to make a game, and 95% of the time it looks bad (Games like Celeste did it right). They pale in comparison compared to SNES pixel art games. On a side note, I discovered the beautiful 'Unruly Heroes' this week and I love it, its like the spiritual successor to Rayman Legends. Now that's good platformer artstyle.
Visuals are a mish mash and it's ugly which is why I think it will hurt sales.
Normally, I'd go for a platformer that's "just fine," but these ugly 8-bit style graphics then becomes the deal breaker. I'm all for gameplay over graphics, but the presentation is still important enough that it becomes the tiebreaker for me when the gameplay is leaning on the fence. I'll pass.
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