Pinkman | a Review
originally published on 10/10/2022;
Hello everyone, I am the gorgeously happy G.E.M.Simov, a pink fellow come to run around and tell you about Pinkman.
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it.
Gameplay
Ah, Pinkman. That’s a game, if I’ve ever seen one. You (the Player) are Pinkman, and you are placed in a multitude of levels, each of which has a simple goal for you - get to the exit after opening it.
Pinkman, being a 2D side-scroller-esque platformer, in the vein of Super Mario Bros, but with the ability to go backwards, presents the Player with simple controls - A to go left, D to go right. The same can be accomplished with the Left arrow key (to go left) and the Right arrow key to go right. To jump, you press the Z key.
You can also jump off of walls, which requires that you are up against the wall. Being up against a wall - by moving in the direction of the wall even when you are right next to it - you fall more slowly. You slide down the wall, and that’s when you can perform the wall-jump, by pressing the Z key.
There are checkpoints, here and there, allowing you to avoid having to redo the entirety of a level when you die. There are hazards, of course, the most common being spike-balls (which are just spikes on the ground that look like an asterisk).
But you’re not limited to just running and jumping. You can far– Fly. You can fly (by farting), which allows for some interesting level layouts. There’s a gauge that fills up while you’re not flying (but after a short amount of time following a flight), which gauge is used to measure how lengthy your flight can be. It’s quite short, but there’s a solution - BEANS (told you you were farting).
Picking up a bean (by walking through it) refills your flight gauge, allowing you to fly further. As stated, this allows for interesting level layouts. Not only that, but the way the flight mechanic works, you can treat it as a double jump, for it slightly properly you upwards even with just a tap, allowing you to extend a jump by up to 4 times, which provides quite the sensation if done properly.
There are also jump-pads, which act like trampolines, making the Player Character (PC) jump way up high… Which allows for even more funky business, such as a spike ball on the ceiling above the jump-pad. It is incredibly simple, in concept and execution, but it allows for some tremendously entertaining things when combined with the rest of the ‘simple’ stuff.
It really never does get simple, beyond the first three or four levels. It keeps growing more and more complex due to the multiple variables in play. Homing missiles, as an example, are a very funky variable. Are there homing missiles on this relatively simple jumping level? Well, it is no longer relatively simple.
That’s how difficulty in this game works. It is forgiving - courtesy of the reasonable checkpoint system - but it is also a bit unforgiving, in the sense that some of the segments in the levels are monstrously hard to get a hang of. But then the Player figures out what they’re meant to do and then wham, it’s suddenly simple in appearance.
It keeps getting more and more complex, which introduces difficulty, but it never becomes conceptually impossible. And, seeing as a concept is what is most needed in platformers - knowing how to deal with the issues - that’s a very good thing.
There’s also a hardmode, but it isn’t that hard, as it just removes checkpoints. When you’ve gotten good, you’ve gotten good, and you need no checkpoint to really excel.
There’s a slew of mechanics that show up and present more and more challenges, and it’s all impressively well done. Pinkman, although lacking the ‘I just enjoy the act of playing’, really gets close to gameplay design perfection. 3/3
Presentation
This game’s opening screen is the title of the game - PINKMAN - and a spectacularly unexpected, wholesome compliment aimed at the player, which states: “Happiness looks gorgeous on you.”
That’s a way to start things off, is it not? Unfortunately, the music accompanying it feels… Well, quiet. Very, very quiet, even when it’s the only thing I’m hearing. That, however, doesn’t lessen its quality. It’s some great music, as you might find out the entirety of the game has.
In fact, there is one track. One track in this game is absolutely breathtaking… More on that later.
The SFX of this game are also quite neat. In part because whenever the PC dies, they MIGHT let out the Wilhelm Scream, in part because they’re very much secondary to the music and are just there to provide a bit more feedback to the Player.
Sure, it is a pixel-art game, sure, nothing in it is all that complex looking, sure, there’s little in the way of visual variety with the exception of the color of the background and the color of the foreground, but it’s enough for me.
Not only that, but there’s also a very good, very comprehensive set of tutorials. Every time a new mechanic is introduced, there’s a line of text - a short one - that informs the Player of the mechanic in question. Some are redundant, because it is obviously a new type of gun, but others are quite important, because there’s really no way of knowing that going through the rhomboid shape creates a ghost that follows the PC and that the ghost kills the PC if it touches it.
Wait what do you mean that wasn’t conveyed? Oh, right, this game treats the Player as a reasonable creature and allows them to uncover things through trial and error. In the ghost case, the important thing that does get pointed out is that it can go through walls, which is something the initial ‘go through rhomboid and die to ghost’ stage of research will not inform the Player.
I’m of the opinion that this game has a really good presentation. Sure, it might be possible for it to be better, if the visual fidelity was greater, but I quite appreciate the look of things. It allows for immaculate smoothness and imagination, and that latter thing… Pinkman… Pink… Guy? 3/3
Story
There is no story, folks. It’s just a platformer. 0/3
Legendary Point
Does this game get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? When I first laid eyes upon it in the Steam Store, I think I had obtained a coupon for it… or something along those lines. I see the game ‘Pinkman’ and, due to the fact that, at the time (and still to this day) I was mourning the death of Francis of the Filth, also known as Father Francis, also known as Filthy Frank or Papa Franku, the sight of a Pinkman, who was entirely pink, got my neurons colliding.
Pinkman is evocative of Pink Guy, a character from the Filthy Frank Show, and one that I greatly appreciate. I suppose that this is one of the reasons why Pinkman is such a special game for me, yet I can not quite explain it to myself. That infantile sensation of hiraeth that has taken over me, in relation to the Filthy Frank Show, can not be the sole reason I’m willing to give this game the Legendary Point.
And it isn’t. The reason I so appreciate Pinkman is, partially, his resemblance of Pink Guy, and partially the soundtrack. It is Synthwave (according to the store-page), but I couldn’t care less what type of music it is. It is music, it is great, lovely music that really tickles my soul and drags its metaphorical fingers through it, making me ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ in bursts of uncontrollable and inappropriate ecstasy. YES, Pinkman gets the point.
…I miss Frank. 1/1
Conclusion
7/10. This is a great game for what it is. It’s a simple platformer that grows more complex the further on it goes, until, eventually, you beat it without really knowing that you have. I’d recommend it to everyone, maybe as a game for them to play or as a gift to present to someone - it’s engaging for an hour, maybe two, and it’s, as said, very amusing. The music might make you go back to it, too!
I tuck it under my belt, another shining achievement that I proudly display. I let a tear roll down my side as I do so.