Floyd’s Worthwhile Endeavor May Be The Year’s Most Surreal Platformer [Review]

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On a kind of meta, post-modern level, this is a neat touch. As the man who started our obsession with screens, a direct line can be drawn from Muybridge to Steve Jobs and the other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who create the devices that consume our time today. (For a fascinating in-depth look at this transition, check out David Thompson’s wonderful book The Big Screen.)

But, of course, you’re probably not here for thoughts on how photography led directly to the iPhone, but rather to find out whether this is a game that is worth playing.

So, is it?

There’s a lot to like about Floyd’s Worthwhile Endeavor — from its eccentric graphics to its oddball hat-collecting “plot.” I don’t know how the developers decided on their source images, but they’ve chosen a wonderfully eclectic bunch that sees you leap on floating platforms, ride on ostriches, and avoid being trampled by rampaging elephants. It’s a fun aesthetic, and its “found images” appearance makes it look genuinely different to most of the iOS games we come across.

Controls are a mixture of the smooth and the jerky. Some of the awkwardness and hypersensitivity endemic in iOS platformers is present — regardless of whether you’re using the virtual D-pad or swipe controls. On the other hand, the sprite animation is fluid, and reminded me of the characters from Jordan Mechner’s original Prince of Persia games.

A game featuring so many oddball elements should never be accused of being samey.

If there’s a complaint about Floyd’s Worthwhile Endeavor it’s that it doesn’t always go far enough. Sure, the graphics are amusingly diverting, and the requirement to collect every hat on every stage gives the game replayability, but the concept could have been taken much further. There was so much experimentation in the early days of photography and film (when this game is “set”) that it would be eminently possible to turn this into one of the weirdest, freshest and most memorable platformers to land on iOS.

A game featuring so many oddball elements should never be accused of being samey and, as entertaining as individual levels are, that feeling can sometimes creep in here.

That’s a minor criticism of a title that is a surprising amount of fun, but it suggests that a lot more is possible in the future — something the developers hopefully hint at when they say that, “More levels [are] coming soon.”

Because with a bit more variety, Floyd’s Endeavor could go from being something that’s simply “worthwhile” to “all-time classic.”