Teslagrad from Rain Games is now available for Nintendo Switch! Is this a good port of a fun puzzle/platformer? Read our Teslagrad review to find out!
Teslagrad is a game I had a lot of fun with on the Nintendo Wii U, with its magnetic power-ups, physics-based puzzles, colorful and charming graphics and an interesting way of visually telling its story without the need for voice overs or long walls of text. Your story starts as you run way from the King’s soldiers who, for some reason, are desperate to catch you. You’ll run, jump and climb your way through town until you reach a large tower, with no idea of what to do next.
This might seem a bit harsh, but the game does a great job at showing you the basics as you go, teaching you how to use your new abilities right after you gain access to each one. The main gameplay mechanics, and what makes the game’s puzzles so fun, are based on electricity and magnetism – you know, how magnets repel and attract each other based on polarity and all that science stuff.
The game will ease you into things, allowing you to charge up objects with polarity, something the game shows you by giving a blue and a red color to each polarity so that you can visually tell what will repel what and what will attract what. Got it? Each room you visit will have a small or a large puzzle based on these principles, and some will require that you think a bit outside the box.
And once you get the hang of that, the game will lead you towards a new ability that will allow you to teleport over short distances, and the way puzzles work will slightly change to accommodate this new ability. And once you get the ability to charge yourself with one polarity or the other, well, that’s when the game opens up, big time. You’ll be running and jumping while using your gloves to charge metal objects with one polarity while you prepare to charge yourself with the same polarity so that you’re sent flying in the opposite direction of your jump.
Other than a handful of rooms in which your timing for each part of a puzzle needs to be almost perfect – or else you’ll need to repeat the whole thing all over again – the game just feels great. Everything works once things click for you, and you’ll definitely want to carry on playing until the end.
And for those of you who like to 100% games, you can look high and low in every room of the game to try and find all the hidden cards! Each one reveals a bit of the game’s story, and most of them will present a challenge you’ll need to overcome to be able to reach them. I do suggest that you don’t try to get all of them as soon as you spot them in a room because chances are you’re still missing an ability to be able to reach them at that point. Don’t worry since you can backtrack to get them later in the game, so just make a note of where you need to return to.
Teslagrad was a very fun game back when I played it on the Nintendo Wii U, and this Nintendo Switch version is just as fun, with the bonus of being able to play it both at home or on the go as you please. The game runs great on both portable and docked mode, and I didn’t notice any bugs during my time with the game – probably thanks to all the work done by Rain Games to improve on previous versions of the game which in turn benefited this new port. If you’re looking for a 2D puzzle/platformer on Nintendo Switch, I highly recommend that you get this one today!
Disclaimer
This Teslagrad review is based on a Nintendo Switch code provided by Rain Games.
