It has been a very long time since a puzzle platformer/metroidvania has had me thinking and obsessing over solutions more than actually playing the game. The last time I felt this way was with the classic 3DO game Another World, where the action was fast and furious, but the puzzles were even more mentally taxing and magnified the richness of the genius gameplay. Believe me, you want games like that to exist in the world. They’re the type of game that you play, walk away from, think about how to proceed and progress, and then get back to it and try out the developed solution to see if it worked.
Airhead fits this mold, as you’re tasked with traversing cavernous areas that require you to push boulders, figure out NPC interactions to open doorways and inflate/deflate a head to find your way through treacherous areas. While the game might be too much for some people to handle, and there’s nothing wrong with throwing in the towel occasionally with a puzzler, this is a game that was designed to give the player a solid challenge and to make them feel like they accomplished something by the end of their journey.
So, sit back, relax, go put some helium in that head of yours, and let’s get cracking on the egg that is Airhead.
Easy gameplay, difficult puzzles
Story is a Journey
The story of Airhead revolves around a being called Body who finds a dying being called Head. Head is kept alive solely through literal inflation using cylinders laying around multiple levels that the pair journey through. The purpose of this story is Body needs to save Head, but to do so must traverse through dangerous areas filled full of mysterious caverns, watery pools, and ancient places long since forgotten, and get Head to safety without them deflating and dying.
Simple and purposeful, there isn’t much motivation that needs to be garnished to give the player a reason to keep progressing. Kind of in the same vein as Journey, where you’re not sure of the world you’re in, but you are sure that you need to progress through it before it’s too late, and at the very least push forward so that you can discover why you’re on such a journey. I like stories like Airhead, where you’re not entirely sure what you need to be doing but as you logically piece things together and start seeing new areas and meeting new entities, a sense of being and story start to emerge. It’s a weird and wonderful type of self-discovery that works in this genre of puzzle platformers, and in a way is more mentally rewarding by the end of the journey than most player-controlled genres. And trust me when I say this, you’ll want a reward for the mental energy you give into the game.
Don’t lose your Head
That mental energy is spent because Body, even before Head arrives, has limited capabilities when crossing through crevices and caverns. You’ll find yourself stuck in progression quickly and then sit back and stare around the environment in hopes of figuring out how to use Body’s limitations to press forward. For example, early in the game Body will meet their first body of water and need to find a way to push through it and pass an obstacle to get to the next piece of the game. The game hints that getting through a wedged rock is necessary, as you get glowing visual hints that this rock needs to be removed. Body cannot grab underwater to pull on it, so that’s not the solution. Within that scene, a squid-like creature is munching on some sort of plant. Should Body interact with that plant in some way to cause the creature to turn its attention towards the rock, then a solution presents itself. It took me about five minutes to test and try ways through this puzzle before finally having that “AH-HA!” moment. And that’s how the gameplay goes in Airhead. Body will encounter puzzles that require the player to stop, look around, think about how to progress the character, and then try different methods. It’s an engaging way to get players invested and involved in the gameplay, and it works as intended.
Now, when Head enters the scene, the puzzles become far more complicated. Before Head’s presence, Body could move freely and take its time trying to figure out puzzles. When Head is found and attached to Body (or at least held up), you now must worry about two different things – 1) figuring out the puzzle and 2) keeping head inflated and alive. The second part is difficult, as you have a finite time, as indicated on the lower right side of the screen, to get through a puzzle before Head deflates and you fail. The saving grace(s) in the game are cylinder checkpoints that can be used to reinflate Head. And the game just keeps getting more challenging as you roll on, as you find more and more items to help you in your quest to get Head to safety, and that worry about keeping Head inflated is ever-present in the journey.
Difficulty determines fun
As simple as this game is on the surface, the puzzles and inclusion of Head make the entire process more Souls-like in its challenge. While Airhead has forgiving checkpoints to quickly restart the puzzle platforming, the puzzles can be downright frustrating and brutal at times. For me, I’m fine with failing repeatedly until I figure out how to progress in a game. I can’t stand it in the Souls series, but I’m more than welcoming of it in this type of genre. The game has personality, it has a purpose, and its challenge is the reason you play. Figuring out puzzles is engaging as it is beautiful, as feeling like you have accomplished something is what waits at the end of each puzzle you solve. I love this type of gameplay, as it is fun and individually rewarding. Plus the cute characters help to tame some of that frustration.
As I am an older gamer who is more patient with failure, I could see how this game could turn some folks off with its difficulty. I can easily see someone just giving up and not returning to this game when the puzzles get too difficult. That is a younger me when I played Another World back in the 90s. I loved the game visually and felt like the story was strong in its silence, but as soon as the stakes became too high and the game pushed back too hard, I gave up and didn’t return to it…until five years ago. While I do have faith that most gamers will take on this challenge, as this generation of gamers seems to love a good challenge, a small bit of me knows that some will mistakenly write this game off as too hard. It’s the nature of the gaming game when it comes to finicky gamers.
All this said I think what developers Octato and Massive Miniteam have done here is bring an intelligent set of puzzles that don’t pull their punches and that require effort from the player. That’s just good design and focus, and to have an unfolding story on top of that for the player to translate is just icing on the cake. But, it will certainly frustrate some along the way.
Visually fun
If puzzles and purpose weren’t enough to make this game interesting, the models and simple environments built to visually support the gameplay should be another reason to keep going. The devs didn’t go over the top with the Unreal Engine (and whatever program they used to build the actual models) and its capabilities, as they visually set the tone with color characters, lovely lighting, and simplistic yet majestic level design. It’s a gorgeous game and its style fits the gameplay it is trying to push. The music ain’t half bad either.
On that note, let’s wrap this review up.
Conclusion
Airhead from publisher HandyGames and developers Octato and Massive Miniteam is a gorgeous and challenging puzzle platformer that will put your brain to the test, as a good puzzle platformer should. The difficulty at times might frustrate some players, but the juice is certainly worth the mental squeeze.
