Game: Derpy Conga
Genre: Puzzle, Platformer
System: Nintendo Switch (Also on Steam (Windows))
Developer|Publisher: Giant Door Games
Age Rating: EU 3+ | US Everyone
Price: US $16.99 | UK £14.39 | EU € 16,99
Release Date: February 10th, 2022
Review code provided with many thanks to Giant Door Games.
I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing
Derpy Conga is a 3D physics based platformer about the importance of friendship. It has a nice message and cute style but its controls might not work for everyone.
It was just another day for the residents of a planet far far away. But when one of the yellow aliens gazed through the telescope one morning the little fella discovered an asteroid was heading straight for them. Worse still, their asteroid defense system has blown a few fuses. So it’s up to the cute alien critters to travel to various planets asking for assistance from other aliens in saving their planet.
It’s a straightforward plot that is clearly designed to be suitable for absolutely everybody which extends to the game’s graphical design. The levels you enter feel alive, decorated with a generous amount of alien foliage and the odd animal roaming about like giant turtles or fish leaping out the ocean. The aliens themselves come in four designs each of which includes its own cute little voice that young adults like me might mimic to their 7 week old during daddy time.
Crash Landed
Every level begins with your alien space ship breaking down on some remote part of the planet. Your goal is then to find the SOS point to call in another spaceship so you can continue your quest to find one of the three fuse pieces. You would think these alien species would create a more reliable method of space transport but I guess they spent all their money on a shoddy asteroid defense system. You can’t reach the SOS point alone; you’ll need to enlist the help of the many alien friends you find along the way.
You always take control of one of the yellow aliens but two of the other types have abilities such as sticking to walls or setting on fire playing into the gameplay. When you find one you hold hands to permanently fuse together until you complete the level. You need to work together with your alien buddies to solve puzzles and reach the next area. It’s a pretty original concept which I liked on paper. In practice the controls severely let this game down.
Awkward Controls
As one might expect just looking at screenshots of this game. The more aliens that join the conga line the more difficult the controls are. This seems to be pretty intentional by the developers. Aiming for the awkward physics based design. But I just found it incredibly frustrating in this game. Jumping on platforms is a cumbersome mess with jumps often feeling too shallow the more aliens in your team.
Puzzles are easy to solve and there are some pretty good ideas here but again the controls interfere too much with the enjoyment. Examples include moving a metal ball in the sand to draw an image to unlock a door and scratching a specific alien type on a specific wall surface to set it on fire. These are all interesting ideas but I found myself constantly fighting with the controls to solve the problem. The game also often presented with the odd bug. One common example is with 7 aliens in your line you’re supposed to be able to wrap around an object to pull it about. But often the aliens would not play ball and the mechanic would only fix it if I purposely forced the aliens to jump in the sea.
Thankfully checkpoints are instant and usually correct the issue above. Another big niggle is the game relies heavily on timed based puzzles but not giving you much time to solve them. An example of this would be you need to set one alien on fire then run to a campfire to ignite it as fast as possible. Most of the time I only made it by the skin of my teeth after multiple repeats. Finicky controls certainly can be fun in some games but Derpy Conga proved more hassle and frustration than actual fun.
Extras
The main incentive to replay the levels is to find and collect absolutely every alien. But this was not a mission I found myself compelled to complete. The game also features jump in and out co-op through the entire story. Each player controls one of the yellow aliens in their own split screen but if you both hold hands the screen fuses into one which is a design choice I kinda liked.
Co-op is certainly a welcome feature and I can see some partner and kid combos enjoying the derpyness of the controls. But when it comes to solving the puzzles I feel the novelty will wear off and frustration will set in. Derpy Conga features a demo which I highly recommend downloading to see if the game does click with you.
Conclusion – A Little Too Derpy
I really wanted to like Derpy Conga. It has all the ingredients for a good wholesome game. Original gameplay concept, welcoming graphical style, a nice message and of course co-op. But the controls and odd bugs severely ruined the experience for me. With some patching to tidy things up a bit I can see this easily becoming the cute cuddly adventure of friendship it is meant to be. But in its current state, it’s not something I’d currently recommend.
Final Verdict: I’m Not Sure
