Ink

Genre: Platformer

Players: 1-2 (Local Split-Screen)

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in Digerati Indie Bundle: Ink & Hacky Zack, along with Hacky Zack.)

Ink is a challenging Platformer released on the PC in 2015, later being ported to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2017 and Nintendo Switch in 2018. This game has players controlling a wobbly white square trying to reach an exit and spreading colorful ink all over the area to show the way there.

Ink is a visually striking game, thanks largely to the bright colors of the ink splattering on the empty black background, making the game look just a bit like a black light painting. There’s just something exciting and visceral about spreading color to the game’s levels that makes simply moving through them a bit of a joy. This is paired with a lovely piano-focused soundtrack. While there’s nothing outright impressive going on here, overall this game is still an audiovisual treat.

The gameplay here is fairly straightforward – in each level, you must defeat all enemies and get to the exit, with only a double-jump and wall jump to do so. These levels will be completely blank when you first enter them, and players must find their way by sloshing around -every action in the game splashes ink, which clings to platforms and remains even if the player dies, meaning that sometimes it’s beneficial to die during a level so you can better see your path in the next playthrough.

While this is a clever mechanic, it’s brought down somewhat by the slow game progression, with the game taking a good long while to build on the early ideas it establishes. In the game’s earliest levels in particular, I found myself wondering if this game was actually going to do anything different with these ideas, or if it was just going to repeat the same basic 2-3 level types over and over again. “Oh, another ‘find the floating squares’ level? Great. And look, another ‘wall jump up and down the vertical zig-zag corridors’ level? Hooray…”. The game thankfully does start doing new things later, but it takes its sweet time getting to it, and never quite seems to do anything too revolutionary with its basic concept. There’s also the problem with the game’s controls, which seem a bit too loose. In a challenging Platformer that’s this unforgiving, that sort of thing is hard to overlook.

Overall, I enjoyed Ink. The wonderfully colorful presentation and fun premise make for a great twist on what is otherwise a pretty straightforward Platformer. It’s just a shame that this game’s progression is so slow and the game never seems to make full use of the potential this idea has. Also, the difficult controls are likely to scare away some of the more casual players who may have otherwise found this to be an attractive game. However, if you’re a skilled player looking for something that’s challenging and visually interesting, you may want to give Ink a try.

tl;dr – Ink is a challenging Platformer where players need to reveal the platforms by splashing colorful ink on them. This game is visually striking, and the premise is great, but the game doesn’t do enough with that premise. Also, the controls are a bit too loose for a game this difficult. Still, if you’re a fan of tougher Platformers, you may want to give this a look.

Grade: C+

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