It’s a Wrap!

Genre: Puzzle-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

It’s a Wrap! is a Puzzle-Platformer released in 2023 on PC and Nintendo Switch. In this game, players take the role of action movie star Johnny Rush, who performs his own stunts, running and jumping through various perilous set pieces in three fictional films. However, that’s only half of the game. The other half requires players to move sliders to determine the timing of various special effects to be used in the scene, ensuring that Johnny actually has a path to each level’s exit as everything shifts or explodes around him.

This game is presented using cartoony hand-drawn 2D visuals that work well enough for the game, with these visuals backed by a cinematic soundtrack that’s appropriate for each of the in-game films based on their genre. Finally, some of the game’s lines feature voice acting, which is pretty good… though oddly not all of the lines do this, with some just having generic mumble-speak instead, which makes me wonder why they didn’t just voice all of the lines instead of going for this half-and-half treatment.

In any case, the gameplay here is excellent, and does a good job balancing the “Puzzle” and “Platformer elements. Each level’s sliders need to be positioned appropriately for you to be able to complete the level, but initially what’s needed isn’t always evident. You may have to try and fail at some of these levels a few times before you can pinpoint what’s wrong and what needs to change. However, even once you do this, you’re not out of the woods yet – then it’s time to actually play the levels, making sure you’re timing your actions as needed.

Overall, I think this is a fun and original take on the genre, and while I expect that not everyone will love having to go back and forth between the Platforming and Puzzle elements to tweak things until you get it right, I still think It’s a Wrap! is a solid Puzzle-Platformer and well worth trying out.

tl;dr – It’s a Wrap! is a Puzzle-Platformer that has players running through various movie scenes and also timing the scenes’ special effects to make each stage passable. The trial-and-error back-and-forth nature of the gameplay won’t please everyone, but otherwise I think this is a fun and original entry in the genre.

Grade: B

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2023 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Platformer, Best Puzzle Game

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