Puzzle platformers, for the most part, have players take control of a single protagonist – a lone entity, as it were. But… what if we were instead allowed access to two… at the same time? While LandR is by no means the first to attempt this, it at least does so in a way that doesn’t feel awkward or cumbersome, with levels obviously designed with an additional moving object in mind.
Although as you hopefully noticed in the title, my opinion of LandR, praise and all, is based on a pre-release demo, rather than a journey through the finished game in its entirety. That said, once I got the hang of controlling L and R (and now the title makes perfect sense…) at the same time – which took but a few moments – I was ready to have fun. The game promptly declined me, forcing tutorial text, however necessary, onto the screen.
Not that there was a whole lot to learn in this new and strange world, but as always, a quick ‘what’s what’ was certainly in order: smash into this block to remove it, press down on that one to collect an element for your spaceship, this is an elevator… and so on. Genre staples like bouncy blocks and pressure plates also made an appearance, alongside teleporters, enemies and locked doors. Fun stuff for sure, and hopefully the upcoming full version will provide plenty more platforming brainteasers to work through.
LandR (demo) is available on itch.io.