Frincess&Cnight

I decided to try a puzzle platformer for a change. It's small, rather unknown, but highly rated by its small audience. It's Frincess&Cnight, and it can be played as either a single player game where you control two characters, or you can give control of the other character to a friend in local co-op.

One player plays the Frog Princess - the Frincess, and the other the Cat Knight - the Cnight. The Frincess can walk on walls and ceilings by grabbing them with her tongue, as well as eating the Cnight and either carrying him or shooting him as a projectile. Meanwhile the Cnight has the ability to jump, use platforms, act as a wall for the Frincess, and smash or push blocks. There are other small differences, but the point is that they have very different movesets. Together, they must navigate the levels and both reach the end without either dying.

There are 55 single-screen levels, and it took us 3 hours to beat. Playing alone might be a bit more difficult, as some levels do expect timing, and could take an extra hour. I found the abilties of both characters, as well as the fact that they were divided at all, to be quite unique. Puzzle platformers often live by having some idea that hasn't been done before, and it definitely succeeded in that regard. As for the level design... The single-screen levels were cute, and didn't require checkpoints, but they're not as impressive as a full map. Also, the first levels were extremely easy, with only a couple levels that took more than 2 minutes in the first 45 levels. After that, the difficulty quickly ramped up, and a couple of the later levels even took us 15-30 minutes, but sometimes for unsatisfying reasons like trial and error. The various mechanics introduced weren't always pushed to their limits, and were rarely combined in a meaningful way.

Overall, while Frincess&Knight is far from a masterpiece, and doesn't have amazing level or puzzle design, it was never bad either, and didn't overstay its welcome. For the low price of 1 euro that it's often sold for these days, I would recommend it if you like puzzle platformers and have a friend to play with. If not, then this isn't really the game to step into the genre from.