Elephantasy

Hmm, Elephantasy was a moderately pleasant experience. It advertises itself as a 2D puzzle platformer, but I do feel it's more of a metroidvania, with how interconnected the levels are, how many sort-of-secret areas there are, and how much backtracking there is. It kind of reminded me of VVVVVV. Elephantasy doesn't seem quite as polished, nor are the puzzles as innovative or interesting, but it similarly has a very simple yet coherent aesthetic, and a large map composed of smaller rooms, each named.

The story is that you fell down, and you're now trying to get back up. To the sky, that is, not your feet. There's a wizard who will help you by loaning you his items in exchange for gathering gems for him from across the world. He offers you four items. Seeds - to make vines grow to be climbed upon. A ring - to make you stronger, and able to lift objects. A snorkel - to make you breathe underwater, somehow. And boots - to make you run so fast you can cross gaps, to compensate for your inability to jump as an elephant.
Each item can be returned to loan out a new one, and so you must use each of them to explore a different part of the world. Eventually, you'll gather enough gems to be allowed to loan two items at a time, allowing you to reach even further corners of the world. Eventually, three items, eventually four, and then maybe you'll get to go back.

Okay, I have to admit, I didn't get too far, so I don't know the details of how the end plays out. We're promised different endings, and possibly more items than the four the wizard initially lets us choose from. While I loved the level design and the art, the game felt a bit too simple to be enjoyable. Aside from figuring out where to go next, there wasn't any challenge. Grab an item, explore all the nooks and crannies of the area(s) you can reach with that item, then get another one. There wasn't much of a sense of "puzzling", just exploring. What didn't help was the somewhat slow pace of the game (note to potential players: set your game speed to max in the settings), combined with a lot of time spent backtracking, and then small frustrations from the character being very rigid to control. I would definitely attribute the last to a lack of polish on the character controller.

Overall, charming, not too long, very well designed map, but not enough of a challenge to be interesting. I would definitely say that this game is neither a puzzle nor a platformer. You might well enjoy it if you like exploration, or like collecting things. Me, I'm not that big on those two aspects, so I can only partially recommend Elephantasy. I think it's mostly well made and unique, but just doesn't tick the boxes for me.