Hayfever

Genre: Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Hayfever is a challenging Platformer released on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 2020. In this game, players take the role of a mailman suffering from terrible allergies, and must use his explosive sneezes to propel him through the game’s levels, collecting missing pieces of mail along the way.

Hayfever makes use of a beautiful presentation with bright, colorful, well-animated pixel art visuals backed by a soundtrack of cheerful, energetic music, with the most constant sound you’ll hear being the vocal “choo” of the cute mailman every time he sneezes… which is extremely often. It’s a really endearing presentation that works well for the game.

The mechanics of this game are quite clever. Your character has a jump, and a sneeze that acts as a double-jump and directional dash. This sneeze can be charged up three levels when your mailman encounters a cloud of allergens, giving you even more speed and distance on your sneezes. However, the catch here is that you have no control over how far you propel yourself – if you’re at full strength, you have to move at full strength. What’s more, if you encounter a fourth cloud of allergens, you are forced to use your sneeze immediately.

This element of being forced to use an air dash/double jump you may not need or want to use at a given moment makes this a really compelling take on the genre. Now, when you find yourself encountering a cloud that can power-up your ability, you have to stop and consider if you actually want it. What’s more, head into an area full of these clouds and you’ll soon be careening around the place. What’s more, later on in the game you start encountering different kinds of allergens – red ones that force you to sneeze full strength immediately regardless of how much you’ve powered-up, arrow-shaped ones that force you to sneeze in one direction, rainbow ones that give you unlimited sneezing potential for a limited period of time… this game makes very good use of its limited premise.

And here’s where I contemplate that I just used the words “unlimited sneezing potential” in a sentence…

Anyway, the Platforming gameplay here is fun, inventive, and has a good amount of variety. However, the high-speed nature of much of the gameplay and the integral part that the lack of control plays in that gameplay can be frustrating, especially when flinging yourself from one red allergen cloud to the next. In these parts of the game, the timing is demanding and not exactly clear, at times seeming to require an input before tossing you in a direction. These demanding and unforgiving gameplay elements make an already difficult game more so, in ways that feel a bit unnecessary.

Still, despite its frustrations, Hayfever is a delightful and original Platformer that fans of the genre should absolutely give a try, especially if you like particularly challenging platformers. It’s clever, varied, and well-paced, and while its challenge can seem a bit unfair at times, this is overall a game well worth playing.

tl;dr – Hayfever is a challenging Platformer that has you playing a mailman propelling himself through the game’s levels with explosive sneezes. The game’s endearing presentation, inventive gameplay, good variety, and strong pacing outweigh the at times unfair difficulty caused by the game’s out of control mechanics. Fans of challenging Platformers should absolutely give this game a try.

Grade: B

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