Axyz
Ballin'
Why
- Immaculate vaporwave vibes and soundtrack
- Chill but satisfyingly challenging puzzles
- Consistently introduces new mechanics with a smooth difficulty curve
- Diegetic menus and UI elements are great
Why Not
- Some levels require quickish reactions, so maybe not ideal for pure puzzle heads
Impressions
I initially picked up Axyz for my wife because she played Kula World as a kid, but ended up playing more than her and now I'm planning to 100% it. The puzzle gameplay is great, starting with a simple premise and gradually expanding it with new mechanics as you progress through each disk. Puzzles involve plenty of spatial reasoning to effectively navigate the maze of floating blocks with your jump and gravity reversal, collecting tapes, points and keys along the way. Despite not generally being a huge fan of puzzle games this one really appeals to me; it's pretty easy to sink into a zen state of just trying stuff out between the visuals and soundtrack.
Presentation is also excellent; the menu is the desktop of a very 90s PC and you select levels by slotting floppy disks into said PC. Each floppy disk has its own vaporwave-style visual theme for the background and the soundtrack is a great fit, complete with nostalgic tape switching sounds as a transition between each track. Bonus levels for each disk offer additional challenge with a noticeable bump in difficulty, and the overall game smoothly transitions from opening disks where beating the high score of each level is simple but satisfying to later disks where I'm struggling to get all the tapes before finishing.
As a side note it works great on Steam Deck; I mostly played it there for the first few disks and had no issues at all.
Overall a great game I can't believe has only sold 2 000 copies as I'm writing this; severely underrated and deserves much more attention that it's received. You can tell the devs did this for the love of it and they did a fantastic job.