Infini from Nakana.io and Barnaque is a surreal story-based puzzle experience unlike anything else on Nintendo Switch. Find out why in our Infini review!
The first thing I thought of when I started to play Infini from Nakana.io and Barnaque, was the excellent Monty Python. After looking at the game’s trailer and the screens in this review, I think you’ll definitely see what I mean. For this one, you will play as Hope, who is, unfortunately, stuck drifting around infinity. Your task will be to help Hope shine through, carrying on, no matter what. I this journey, you will get to interact with other personified concepts, such as Memory, War, Time, Peace, Poetry, or Technology. It will be with their aid, and by changing your perspective of the problems you will face, that you might be able to keep Hope alive.
At first, Hope will be falling on the screen. You will only have to worry about moving it to the portal on the screen, which will allow it to take on the next puzzle. Hope can break free from the constraints of the screen’s borders, so you’ll have to move at a steady pace to complete the different puzzles you will face. The controls for Infini are very easy to get the hang of since new gameplay mechanics are introduced at a steady pace. You can move up, left, right, and down with the left analog stick or the D-Pad, accelerating with the Y button and slowing down with the B button – or flying once you earn your wings! If Hope hits one of the walls or one of the enemies, you can press the A button to restart, but the A button will also be used later to hover in place. You can also zoom in and out with the L/ZL and R/ZR buttons, respectively, to change your perspective of a stage, so that you can use the new layout to your advantage.
Put all of these gameplay mechanics together, and it makes for an interesting puzzle game that will always be teaching you something new to do, slowly but surely making you think outside the box to be able to solve each new puzzle. Take, for example, the zooming out gameplay mechanic. You might start a level with the camera zoomed in on Hope, with large walls to your left and right. If you zoom out a bit, one of the walls might end up on the side of the screen in a way that makes it disappear from the playing field, while still being very much there as a warning. It will be represented by a glowing red broken line, so that you don’t forget that, if you zoom out too much, it will end up being brought back into the frame, making Hope fail.
As has been the case for other releases from Nakana.io, there’s a very special piece of DLC available on the Nintendo eshop. For $1.00, you can purchase the #InfiniPrison, which will unlock new content at the end of the fourth tombstone in the game. Tombstones sort of act as the containers for each of Infini’s sets of levels. Hope will be trapped in War’s lair, and it’s up to you to help it through this time-attack level. The net revenue from all DLC purchases will be donated by Nakana.io to the UN Refugee Agency, which provides protection, shelter, health, and education to the millions of people who have been forced to flee from their homes and restart their lives.
Infini is a surreal story-based puzzle experience on Nintendo Switch that will be hard to forget. It has an interesting mix of gameplay mechanics, along with a very “out there” type of story, that certainly helps it stand out on Nintendo’s console. It’s one of those “love it or hate it” types of games, with more than 100 puzzles to solve, and a journey that will definitely be unique. Infini is out on Nintendo Switch for $12.00.
Disclaimer
This Infini review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Nakana.io.
