Every once in a while, I enjoy a nice puzzle game to mix things up from the more intense games out there. Typoman is a 2D puzzle platformer by the guys at Brainseed Factory. The goal of the game is to solve word puzzles to proceed to the next area. Basically, you have to rearrange the letters to form new words. These words might be commands or work as shields against things that will kill you in the game. The words are never random, so just take some time to think about what you need to do. For example, you might be faced with a gate, so you will need to spell out open. Previously, the indie game had only been available digitally, so it would have never been something I would consider playing before.
Therefore, I had never heard of Typoman before Limited Run announced that they were going to publish it, so all I had to go by was a trailer on YouTube. I’m happy to report that Typoman was better than expected. During the early stages of the game I wasn’t sure if I was going to like the game, but it quickly grew on me. In hindsight most of the puzzles are not that hard; they just take some time to think them through. I would say, once players get use to the patterns things get easier. That’s not to say that all the puzzles are easy. Some of the later puzzles are actually kind of hard and takes some out of the box thinking. But, don’t be discouraged from enjoying the game. There’s plenty of guides online if you get stuck, but I do encourage you to try them on your own first. Like I said earlier, Typoman is also a platformer so expect to be jumping, swinging and running away from enemies on top of the puzzles. You should also be careful of spelling negative words like evil, hate and fear. When you spell these words they morph into demons that try to kill you. You can also spell the word lie which transforms into a little creature. You can combine this little creature with the demons and other words to form new words. That’s where you have to think a little outside the box. Sometimes you will not have all the needed letters to form the word you need, so you might have to do some combining to form new letters.
Most of the meat of the game is in the gameplay, so don’t expect a huge story. That’s not to say that the story is completely missing, but it’s light. Most of the story is told through visuals, music and quotes you can find throughout the game. I liked the music for the most part, but some of the score sounded like static, which was painful to listen to. That being said, I think that was the developers intentions. The quotes on the other hand, were almost like in game collectibles, so it added a little more to the gameplay. It was fun finding all the quotes and I really enjoyed reading each one. In fact, when you put all the quotes together they formed a story. Choosing to include quotes was an interesting choice by the developers and they helped filled in some of the gaps about the game’s plot. It’s up to the player in the end to figure out how they want to interpret the quotes, but I think the quotes reinforce the idea that the main character is metaphorically trying to escape Hell. But, in reality he is really escaping Nazi occupied Europe, which would be Hell. That’s just theory, but I could be wrong. I would be interested to learn what my readers thought of the game in the comment section.
Overall, Typoman was a fun and challenging experience even though it was short. If you don’t get stuck too often it will probably take you around one to two hours to complete. Typoman gets four out of five typo stars.
Typoman is sold out from Limited Run but you can find it on eBay for $30 or less.
Limited Printed Games 