Journey of the Broken Circle from Lovable Hat Cult and Nakana.io is a 2D adventure about life, love, fulfillment, and existentialism. Learn more in our Journey of the Broken Circle review!
Journey of the Broken Circle from Lovable Hat Cult and Nakana.io is a story-driven 2D platforming adventure that deals with life, love, fulfillment, and existentialism. You play as the titular Circle that ends up being broken, missing a piece to once again become a full entity. Before we go any further, yes, your character does look like the beloved and iconic Pac-Man since it’s missing a “pie slice” to make Circle complete, but this one rolls around instead of moving in a straight line, chomping at everything in its path.
As you roll around each area, Circle will make comments about his current situation and the areas it visits, and the game will also present some extra narrative bits here and there. For example, Circle will complain about the piece it’s missing and how, if it was a full circle, it would be able to roll at a better pace, which definitely makes a lot of sense. Things would certainly go smoother for each of us if we felt complete, right? But maybe finding what we think we’re missing is not going to be the solution.
You’ll roll around with the left analog stick or the D-Pad, jumping as needed with the A button. You can collect mushrooms as you explore each area since Circle seems to really like them. Some will be out in the open, while others will be hiding inside of small caves or planted high on a platform that, at first, seems to be way out of reach. Collect enough, and you’ll unlock a bonus stage! There will be moss-covered areas that will help Circle to bounce or streams of vapor that will shoot out of the ground, lifting it up at high speed. Later you will run into Sticky, a new friend who will join you on this journey. He will perfectly fit where Circle’s missing piece would go and will allow him to stick to surfaces. If you want to stop this, just press down on the left analog stick or the D-Pad, or press the B button. Will you meet others in your journey that might complete you?
Journey of the Broken Circle is a fun, short, and linear story-driven journey of self-discovery in which you’ll take on some light puzzles that will increase in difficulty as you progress through the game – life tends to get more complicated as we grow, right? Journey of the Broken Circle is out now for $10, and it’s one to check out on Nintendo Switch.
Disclaimer
This Journey of the Broken Circle review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Nakana.io.
