Thank you Ratalaika Games for sending us a copy of this game!

Kinduo is a very simple puzzle platformer where the player takes control of two friends, an anthropomorphized rock and lighting bolt, who have been whisked away to a strange land. The player must use the different skills at each of the friends' disposals, help them navigate through a series of 30 levels, and help them get home.

The gameplay is pretty straightforward. Depress buttons, shove blocks around, use lightning to power elevators, and exit through a Kirby-style floating door to progress to the next level. The levels are broken up into groups of 10, with each group representing a new world/environment, a couple new mechanics, and a new music track. When playing solo, you can swap between the two characters with the press of a button. Kinduo never asks you to rapidly swap between them in a time-sensitive fashion, so there's no worry that you won't be able to control them both fast enough to solve a particular puzzle. In fact, there are no time-sensitive mechanics at all: no resetting buttons, no timed doors, no rushing across the map to grab something before it disappears. Steam classifies Kinduo as a "side-scrolling" platformer, but the vast majority of levels fit on a single screen. This makes the entire gameplay very relaxed and does give the player all the time they need to plan their next move.

The other side of that coin is that Kinduo is VERY easy. Since there are no time constraints, the game never asks you to flex any platforming prowess, only your brains. But most levels are very straightforward as well, with very few ways to mess it up. Much of the time, simply walking through with no real planning and just interacting with the on-screen elements is enough to get to the end of each level. Only on a couple of levels did I find myself needing to reset at all, let alone more than once because I had done something out of order and needed to rethink my approach. Most puzzle gamers will likely find Kinduo far too easy and far too short. I got the PS4 Platinum trophy in under an hour.

The puzzles aren't the only simple part of Kinduo, either. The graphics are reminiscent of early Mega Man. Some may find the style choice charming. The music, on the other hand, sounds like one person plinking away one key at a time on a piano. Given there are only 3 worlds, that's 20 minutes of a single song made up of a single instrument being played one note at a time. And the tracks in the three worlds aren't even that different from one another. The music on the main menu is the only exception, which sounds ever so slightly more complex.

As far as stability goes, there were no real issues. It never crashed, never glitched in a way that required I restart a level or messed me up in any serious way, and never required me to close and reopen the game. Sometimes pushing blocks got a little sketchy, where instead of just pushing a block, the rock character would push for a fraction of a second, stop for a fraction of a second, and repeat, but this just slowed the pace of the game down; it didn't affect my ability to finish the level. Oh, and the intro cutscene doesn't actually finish playing before transitioning to the first level.

Kinduo has as little to talk about morally as everything else. Both characters give out surprisingly visceral screams if crushed or tossed off a ledge. The ESRB Rating mentions "mild blood", but I think that is just how the characters kind of...splatter when crushed or blown up. The rock guy is reddish-brown, so maybe it looks like blood a little, but I never saw it as such. I honestly think the E10+ rating is a little harsh.

Overall, as a seasoned gamer, I personally found Kinduo to be too short and easy. However, due to the ease of Kinduo's puzzles, there is one situation where it may actually be a great buy: people looking to do co-op with a less experienced player, like a non-gamer spouse or a younger child, or people who are less experienced themselves. I could see this being a great experience for a pair of young kids to try together and help them learn to communicate and solve puzzles cooperatively. That hour that it took me would take my kids quite a bit longer, I'm sure. In that light, the $1.99 price tag on Steam seems like an absolute steal. Kinduo has been on the Nintendo eShop for as low as $1.99 as well. If that situation applies to you, then Kinduo might just be worth a try.

-maestro_dana