Typoman (Wii U eShop) Review

The puzzle-platformer has undergone a wonderful revival recently. Coming mostly from independent developers unrestrained by risk-averse major publishers, we players have been treated to a wonderful variety of thoughtful platformers each with their own unique take on the underlying formula. Typoman similarly, has it’s own claim to fame to differentiate it from it’s puzzle platforming peers. The world and puzzles of Typoman are made up of word puzzles.

Now to be clear, you won’t be going through and completing crosswords to advance. As an example, instead of triggering switches to move an elevator, you might find letters in the world and arrange them into the word ON to turn on a switch, or maybe RAISE to raise the platform. Similarly, hazards in the world are made up of letters too. Pits are floored by sharp capital ‘A’s, and you might find an unusual word ‘PART’ lying around, only to have it rearrange into ‘TRAP’ and hurt you when you get close. Even our hero is made of letters. Their body is literally made from letters that spell HERO. It’s a neat little trick that makes the first hour or so with the game feel entirely different from other games in it’s genre. I lost count of the times I caught myself smiling at the ways the developers used words to subvert my expectations.

Some of the ways words are used really engaged my lateral thinking, which felt great. There were some puzzles that I just couldn’t quite work out though, and this is where the hint system comes in handy. At any point in the game, you can tap a ? icon on the touch screen which will bring up a line of what might be a short story, which uses words you can make in the environment. Often this is enough of the hint regarding the word you need, but if not, you can tap ? again and the word you need will be highlighted. Sometimes it will just then be a matter of rearranging the letters into that word, at other times you will need to manipulate the letters around the environment to get them all together for arranging. There are a few moments like this throughout the game, and they are some of the most enjoyable puzzles in the whole experience.

Unfortunately, the ways these word puzzles are used become less enchanting as the game progresses. While at the start the word manipulation feels clever, the ‘a-ha!’ moments come thick and fast. Later on though, it can often feel like you’re just trying to work out the specific word the developers want you to make. There are times when you can make words which feel like they should solve a problem, but they don’t work because they’re not the specific word you require. It’s unfortunate, but maybe not unexpected. Most of the puzzles in the last chapter, rather than using words already existing in the world instead gives you what I’ll call letter dispensers, where you are given a set of letters to choose from and you need to make a word from a combination of them in order to affect the environment. Almost the entire final chapter leans on these dispenser puzzles, and they quickly become tiring.

Combined with some pixel-perfect platforming requirements in the final section, it feels the last section of the game really hurt the goodwill I felt during the first few areas. Typoman doesn’t become unplayable by any means, and when you fail, a reload is reasonably quick at letting you try again. I just found it frustrating to repeat certain areas over and over because I made a minor mistake in on a jump. It didn’t feel hugely satisfying when I successfully passed difficult platforming areas, more just relieving that I would be able to see some more of the game and never play that section again. The jumping and controls in general are reasonably responsive, and they work well enough when the game doesn’t ask too much of you control wise. Typoman is at it’s best with it’s clever word puzzles, but at times it requires perfect platforming to continue and the controls really feel like they impede your progress at these times.

Typoman doesn’t have an overt story as such, what story is here is told subtly. Our HERO generally uses concepts of positivity, life and love against the hazardous environment and creatures which are made from fear and hate. There are some character interaction moments told through short in-engine cut-scenes, and the hint messages I mentioned earlier could be seen as part of the story as well. It is never certain whether the stories in the hint messages actually relate to our HERO, but they seem to pull from a story of loss and sadness that might give some insight into our character.

As far as visuals go, it shares a lot in it’s visual style with it’s genre contemporaries. Our character and many of the hazards are black silhouettes against a less dark, but still oppressive backdrop. None of the world feels friendly, as though anything could potentially hurt our hero, and often it will. The heavy visual atmosphere is complemented by a subdued musical score which rarely takes the spotlight but feels consistent with the themes being shown on screen.

Typoman’s premise is exciting. Trailers and pre-release information showing how words are manipulated in the world had me genuinely excited to try it out. The first chapter or so of the game lived up to this promise. While platforming felt a little unnatural, the ways letters are manipulated in these early areas feel genuinely clever. It’s unfortunate that this feeling doesn’t persist into the later stages where unexpected platforming perfection is asked of a player with controls that impede their ability to comply, and word puzzles that become more forced than clever. 

Review concludes below.