Repit

Genre: Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Repit, released on PC in 2021 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2023, is a game that tries to do something intriguing – it attempts to make “Platform Hell” style Platformers more accessible for people other than the most grizzled die-hard Platformer players, letting players draw on the game screen to make notes every time they trip one of the hidden traps.

For those who haven’t been exposed to “Platform Hell” games, these are an extremely niche subgenre of Platformers designed to be painfully, punishingly, deceptively unfair, challenging players to beat the game, despite the fact that the game cheats in virtually every way possible to try to kill the player. Hidden traps that spring out and kill you with no warning, platforms that appear to be solid but disappear when you touch them, other platforms that are invisible and that you need to step on to progress. Players can’t trust anything about the game, save for that the level will remain consistent in how it is unfair each time you die and replay it, meaning that success comes through a combination of skill and memorization of where everything that killed you before is.

Repit does all of this. You will die a lot in this game, and most of the time you will die due to traps and hazards that you would have had no way to know were even there. Spikes extending from floors, walls, and ceilings right as you step in range to be immediately killed, seemingly-safe paths that will seal your doom, seemingly-deadly paths that are actually the correct way to progress Platform Hell players will feel right at home here.

However, those who don’t want to have to memorize every trapped platform, every wrong route, and every way you’ve been killed are given another option here, because Repit allows players to write notes on the screen (using either the right analog stick and shoulder buttons or simply by drawing on the touchscreen directly) that can be used for subsequent play-throughs of each of the game’s single-screen levels. That section of floor falls away? You can scratch it out with an X or draw an arrow to indicate the danger. Need to step here, then here, then here, use your notes to show exactly where you need to go. This game is still very much trial-and-error, but now there’s no need to remember everything that will kill you, as long as you can understand your own notes to yourself.

Repit doesn’t penalize you much for dying, either. A more vicious entry in this subgenre would have you restart from the beginning of the game each time you die, but Repit only takes you back to where you entered the current screen. There’s no limited lives here either, though a counter does tick up every time you die.

Make no mistake, this game is still punishingly difficult, and even after you know what you need to do, you may very well find yourself dying repeatedly before you can do it. This is not a game for novice players, even if it’s more accessible than most “Platform Hell” games. It’s still a somewhat niche game, though Platformer fans curious about this masochistic corner of the genre will likely find this to be one of the better entry points to see what this is all about.

When it comes to presentation, everything here is extremely minimalist. Your character is a simple square with eyes and legs, and the levels are simple black lines on a white background with your own notes being in red, and you could easily picture this game’s visuals being drawn in MS Paint. This is joined by simple sounds for actions in the game, and no music. Like I said, extremely minimalist.

So, does Repit succeed in making “Platform Hell” Platformers accessible to anyone? Well, no. This is still a very challenging game. But it does succeed in making one of the most accessible games within this subgenre, and one that more skilled players of Platformers might be able to enjoy instead of throwing their controller through their TV in frustration and anger. Ultimately, I think that makes Repit a success, even if it’s only a minor one.

tl;dr – Repit is a game that aims to make “Platform Hell”-style Platformers more accessible by letting players draw notes on the screen so they know where traps are when they replay a stage after dying. This is still a game that only more skilled players will enjoy, and the presentation is as simple and unimpressive as possible, but for those curious about the super-niche “Platform Hell” subgenre, this is a good way to try out this style of game.

Grade: C+

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