Typoman
OpenCritic Rating
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Critic Reviews for Typoman
A great idea ruined by some very strange design decisions, that turn what should be a fun platformer puzzler into a gloomy and illogical word game.
The beginning of Typoman showed promise, full of amusing and creative moments, something that anyone could enjoy. But unfortunately it wasn't able to hold that momentum for very long and quickly devolved into tedium and confusion, and lots of standing around doing nothing.
Typoman's appeal boils down to whether or not you're willing to invest in shorter games that are content light, yet have genuinely interesting ideas that are beyond what's come before. By using words as an aesthetic and gameplay device, it writes its own reasons for why it is unique. My only wishes were that the platforming was tighter and that it had a few more levels. Typoman is over far too quickly for my liking, but this is high praise for what it did in its short time.
As unique as Typoman is, seeing the scale of its missed opportunity unfold only saddens me evermore.
This isn't an awful game by any stretch, it's not nothing special, despite the feeling it should be.
Typoman remains a refreshing combination of platform-adventure and word puzzler, with a particularly creative use of words and letters as physical tools. It's undoubtedly spoiled by frustratingly clunky platforming mechanics and a lack of clarity in some of its design, but those after something a little bit different and cerebral should give it a spin.
Typoman fashions a marvelous world full of wordy wonder, and those who feel it would be up their alley should definitely give the game a try based on that alone. However, the smudges that can come in the platforming, combined with the roller coaster difficulty, may very likely frustrate some when they find themselves caught in a death loop. The shorter length of the game is also a factor to consider, but the thought of a sequel with an expanded vocabulary and tweaked platforming makes us want to look up "enticing" in the thesaurus.
Typoman is a brilliant proof of concept muddied by messy mechanics, unclear prompts and a lack of meaningful motivation. While the wordplay is superb, the focus is never on that strength as often as I wish it was.
