Buy Type:Rider

Story is ok.
But gameplay is F HORRIBLE.
Horrible physics, horrible jumps, horrible random ♥♥♥♥ happening.

It's easy to take fonts for granted. After all, hundreds of them come preloaded in even the simplest word processors, allowing for uninhibited freedom for formatting whatever we might need. But what most probably forget, is that it didn't use to be like this; those fonts came from somewhere, each a painstaking creation designed with a specific use in mind, which have nonetheless endured for generations and are now being put to use for far different purposes.

In many ways Type:Rider acts as a sort of mini history lesson to the legacy of fonts, a subject far more interesting in execution than on paper. From the earliest known texts to modern computer code, it's surprisingly fascinating to see the evolution of printed text and how various fonts came into being. There's a special place in my heart for games that can be both entertaining and educational, and this is certainly among the best I've played to date.

If you're shaking your head thinking there's nothing you'd rather not do than read over history descriptions while playing a game, it's worth noting that it's entirely optional to do so. It's never in your faced or forced upon you, but if you are planning to dismiss this side of the experience you'll be left with an otherwise rather bland and clumsy platformer. I was able to look past many of the weaker aspects of the game because I found the artistic and academic elements to be interesting in themselves, but those looking for even an average platformer are likely to come away disappointed.

This falls solely on the controls, a terribly clunky lesson in frustration as you attempt to maneuver a character that seems to like nothing more than to flip wildly out of control at the worst moments. Most levels make up for this by being relatively simple to traverse, but on a handful of occasion more precision is required which proves truly aggravating. The secret level being the most difficult and featuring no checkpoints only adds insult to injury, making me wonder why the developers chose to add such a challenging segment to a game that seems designed to be a relaxing an accessible experience.

Type:Rider is far from a perfect game, maybe not even a good one, but it is a unique and interesting endeavor to give a little background on a subject I'd never have bothered to look into otherwise. For those who can appreciate it more as an art piece than a traditional platformer, it's an intriguing slice of edutainment the strength of which lies in its excellent aesthetic and nontraditional source material, and not its gameplay. Anyone already bored reading this review should go ahead and pass on it, as there are dozens of other games that will be a far better fit for what you're after.

If nothing else, I doubt you'll ever look at comic sans quite the same way again.

You can read more of my writing on Kritiqal.

First off: This is meant to be an educational experience, if you don't like 'games' like this move on and don't read further.

The levels are composed of letters of whichever font you're playing, and they look gorgeous.
Everything is simple, yet aesthetic. The music fits, spot on. I was surprised on how everything works so well together. Each world has their own theme that reflects the font (and the era it's from). For someone like me, who didn't really know anything about font history, Type:Rider was truly informative. It never seemed boring and always kept my interest.
The only downside I can think of, is that sometimes the physics seem a bit off. Otherwise well worth a buy, defenitely while it's on sale.

Type:Rider is a strikingly ambitious game. It’s a platformer that has you play as a pair of dots who jump, swim, and solve environmental puzzles to progress. It’s also an educational game that teaches you about the history of typography as you play.The game plays out as a series of side-scrolling levels that hinder your progress with puzzles and obstacles instead of enemies. The usual platformer ingredients are on display here, like spikes, lava, water, and moving platforms. It might not sound terribly original, but the developers have pumped tons of creativity into the game’s design. Each world is based on a particular font, and the environments are made up of giant letters in that font, plus whatever new printing technology became available at the time.The controls aren’t as precise as they could be, but checkpoints are closely spaced so you never lose much progress. Every good platformer has collectibles, and here they’re the letters of the alphabet. A number of asterisks are also scattered throughout the levels; grabbing them unlocks sections of text that teach the history of writing and typography. The history is fun to read even if you’re not particularly interested in fonts.Like in Limbo, the graphics are silhouetted and stunning, set against abstract pages of text, drawings, and photographs. The music is pleasantly atmospheric, changing with the timeframe the levels take place in.One problem– and it’s a minor one– is that stopping to read the text sections as you collect asterisks in the game does a disservice to the gameplay. It’s far better to play the levels without stopping for the history lessons, and then read the texts you’ve collected between levels.Despite the somewhat mushy controls, Type:Rider is an incredibly fun, unique platformer. It manages to entertain and inform in equal measure, which is more than most games try to do.

This game has a great soundtrack and an absolutely gorgeous art style. As a visual design piece, Type Rider is brilliant.

Unfortunately Type Rider's doesn't quite live up to its visuals. The first half of the game offers almost no challenge and while the second half is more difficult, most of the challenge comes from fighting the game's clumsy and unpredictable physics in scenarios where skill takes a backseat to luck.

While the game is occasionally enjoyable, it's hard to recommend it to anyone who isn't a typography buff.

Original combination of gameplay, history & art

Type:Rider is the first game developed for the European tv channel Arte, which focuses on arts & arts history. So it comes as no surprise that the actual theme of the game is all about history: in the course of ten levels, the player discovers the history of ... typography, of the different fonts used from the earliest printed books back in the Renaissance right up to the newest developments.

While this may sound boring and very school-alike, it isn't. The development studio, Ex Nihilo, has managed to transform this theme into an interesting and original game. The actual gameplay is rooted in the tradition of the platformer: you control two dots, who travel through a level filled with letters and other items related to typography. There are problems to be overcome, gaps to be jumped and letters to be collected. Played with a controller, the game let me control my dots quite accurately, and even as a platform-noob, I didn't encounter too many difficulties in finishing all the levels (only the bonus level took me quite some time). Besides jumping and controlling the dots' speed, there is no other action, so no firing or whatsoever.

But there is more to this game than some simple and well-known platform mechanics. Traversing through the levels, you'll unlock a lot of historical information on the different fonts and the context in which they were developed and used. The presentation of this is very well done, with short to-the-point texts and a lot of visual information. Graphically, the game is a gem: every level is transformed into an evocation of the period of its particular font, with sounds and music increasing the historical feeling. The game does have trading cards & achievements, some of which are challenging and encourage you to discover every corner of every level.

Highly recommended to everyone with some interest in history and/or arts. Those looking for an exciting and challenging platform-game should probably go elsewhere though.

As a graphic designer, I am an admirer of great typography. This game, with its subject matter and beautiful style, was easy to take a chance on. In the end: Is it informative? Very. Is it beautiful both in terms of audio and visuals? Extremely. Is it fun? Not really.

For me, the control (especially jumping mechanics) just never felt quite "right". That is easily the biggest source of frustration in the game. While some sequences are downright inspired, others are grit-your-teeth annoying.

The informative nature of the game and the actual gameplay seem at times to be at odds with each other. For example, unlocking an informative page gives you a prompt to view it immediately - while I recommend doing this since the visuals and audio in the portion of the level you are in will be tuned towards this piece of info, it halts the gameplay and can break the pacing. In addition, occasionally the game will destroy you as soon as you return to the gameplay and cause you to have to replay the small sequence again. It feels like a punishment for doing what the game is designed to have you discover.

In the end, I just can't recommend the game.

Great concept, amazing visuals, interesting historical lessons. But this game is a platformer, so it needs responsive controls. Alas, this is not the case here. Movement is sluggish, the character (colon, in fact) reacts slowly and even the most basic actions require a lot of patience and luck.

Bottom line: this is a nice history lesson, but a bad platformer.

Type:Rider is a puzzle platform game designed more of an educational experience to introduce you the history of typography than to provide a thrilling and testing game experience. As the aforementioned educational experience it's really interesting, purely as a game it can be frustrating.

You control two balls, a colon(?), inexorably linked across 10 levels, one intro, 1 hidden and 8 main ones representing the various ages of typography each with a font theme appropriate to the era. From Gothic to Time, Helvetica to Pixel, each level has it's own unique idenity and all are very different, thankfully never feeling grindy.

On each level the goal to collect the entire typeface, A through Z, 6 or so asterisks' and a hidden ampersand. Apart from the sort of hidden ampersand, you really won't have to go out of you way to collect anything. None of the levels are difficult, you are meant to experience this game, not be challenged by it and with the fine ambient music, levels are a joy. Each main level is split into 4 parts, two collectable platforming sections and 2 puzzle areas. These puzzle areas range from Arkanoid and Peggle clones to shifting a third ball around through typeface to open a door, all doors requiring a third ball, key, to open.

As a game it is let down by frustrating controls, the wall jumping doesn't quite work right. Jumping is also an inexact science and once you get to the final level there are sections that really deserve better controls. This game isn't Super Meat Boy, but a little more time was needed to finesse the gaming.

It's definitely worth your time, a couple of hours, at a decent price, but I can't help the feeling that if they had made the control and physics more predictable, it would have made a better game.

+ Includes unlockable, interesting history of typography entries
+ Soundtrack is immersive and surreal; one of the game's better selling points, and every track was perfectly suited for the stage
+ Ambient sound design, also, is superb
+ Level designs are unique and make for excellent platforming
+ Controlling two inseperable dots makes movement through the stages a bit more challenging, but it does so in a refreshing way that the player will surely enjoy
+ Respawns are frequent, and the game typically throws the player at the last safest place before their untimely death; robs the player of much of the frustration typical of the genre
+ In addition to the individual level design, each collection of stages is vastly different from the other; furthermore, they become more and more interesting as the player moves through the game

- Little replayability once having attained all of the achievements
- One of the achievements requres the use of a Facebook or Twitter; this may not be a problem for the majority of the players, but speaking as someone who has neither, I detest that this is a requirement