Pode is a charming two player co-op game, which can, should you wish, be played by yourself, but you would be missing out on the most fun the game can offer.

The story sees a star fall from the sky, meeting a little rock guy, who decides to help the star get back to the sky by travelling through the cavernous interior of a mountain. From a story point of view, it’s as simple as that.

The two new friends, Bulder and Glo, must combine their abilities to solve each of the cavern's puzzle rooms. You quickly discover that the rock dude can interact with stones and other rock like structures to create something different, while the star can interact with living things to create elevators, bridges and platforms. It does require the combined abilities of the two to solve each of the puzzle rooms.

The story is minimalistic, but that’s ok as it's designed as a co-op game that is easy to pick up and learn. You can play this on your own, switching between the characters, but the most fun is had playing with another person. The game is perfectly pitched to be played with people of all ages and skills, so would be a great game to play with the kids.

As the game progresses the two characters gain further abilities, but these are gently introduced making the gameplay very intuitive, which is just as well as the two characters do not speak, but chirrup in very cute ways at each other. It’s a weird thing, but the sound design makes you feel that the two really do care for each other.

The overall tone of the game goes for a relaxed charmingly cute experience as you progress through well designed and visually pleasing environments. There are the occasional cut scenes and these well animated extras really elevate the game above some of the competition. The game does not push the Switch with some relatively basic textures and modelling, but the overall effect remains attractive. Add to this the relaxing melodic audio track and you have a fun and relaxing experience.

8

Charles Packer