Energy Lab

Genre: Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Energy Lab is a challenging Platformer released in 2024 on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. In this game, you’ll be using a sort of portal gun to help you transport yourself around the rooms you must navigate, hitting switches, trying to unlock and reach the exit door.

Right from the start when I played this game, it felt like a complete mess. First of all, this is one of those games that refuses to let players play it using a controller, even Joy-Con controllers, forcing you to play it in handheld mode for absolutely no reason. However, even within this constraint, the game still controls poorly, with awkward movement, inconsistent gameplay mechanics (springboards that don’t work one moment, and suddenly work the next moment), and foreground elements that blend in with the backgrounds.

This game starts off with a steep difficulty spike early on, and this is made more difficult by the fact that the portal gun that’s central to completing the game’s levels only has a limited number of charges. Make one mistake or miss one shot and you’ll be looking to reset the room and start over again. Add to this switches running on a stingy timer and you’ll be resetting this game a lot.

The visuals here use simple 2D pixel art that works for the gameplay but looks pretty bland, backed by repetitive synthesized music. In short, the presentation isn’t going to save this game.

Simply put, Energy Lab was a thoroughly unpleasant experience from the moment I turned it on. It plays poorly, is inconsistent, and is unforgiving in a way that goes beyond challenging to just plain frustrating. Don’t buy this game.

tl;dr – Energy Lab is a challenging Platformer plagued with problems, with the game forcing you to play it in handheld mode for no reason, terrible gameplay, punishing and inconsistent game design, and a bland presentation. I can see no good reason anyone should play this mess of a game.

Grade: F

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