Review Haxiel 2/5 · Feb 6, 2022
Mable and The Wood is a platformer that attempts to put a twist on the usual formula. The usual mechanics of platforming - running, jumping, fighting - are not available to your character. Instead, your character can temporarily take on various forms. For example, turning into a fairy lets you fly for a short distance. Turning into a spider lets …
Mable and The Wood is a platformer that attempts to put a twist on the usual formula. The usual mechanics of platforming - running, jumping, fighting - are not available to your character. Instead, your character can temporarily take on various forms. For example, turning into a fairy lets you fly for a short distance. Turning into a spider lets you shoot webs and swing around. The forms are also used for combat. The fairy form can pull your sword over the flight distance, cutting down anything in between. The spider form can shoot out the sword at the end of a web. The game's narrative leads you to a number of bosses, each of which offer a new form to play with.
While this idea sounds great on paper, the implementation is not quite enjoyable. Controls are loose, no matter which form you're controlling. Moving around feels wobbly, and you're never quite sure exactly where you're going to end up. This frustration is compounded by the fact that maps include segments where you need precise navigation. Since combat is merged into the movement mechanics, it also suffers from the same flaw - you're trying to land hits somehow instead of using any kind of precision.
In my short time with the game, I didn't get too deeply into the narrative. The central character, Mable, is tasked to kill a number of 'great beasts' to restore order to the world. However, the game's description on Steam claims that you can also take a pacifist route and not kill anything. I liked this idea, and I read through a few discussions surrounding it. The general consensus is that the pacifist route is difficult to discover and difficult to play - again because of the 'movement is combat' approach.
It's a little unfortunate that Mable and The Wood turned out this way. I wanted to like it, and I would have enjoyed it if was a little more precise in its controls and a little more thoughtful in its design.
P.S: I'm reminded of the game Bionic Commando: Rearmed in this context. You can't jump in that game either, but it gives you a bionic arm implant to swing around with and is plenty of fun.
