Typoman Revised Review – A Play on Words Worth Playing

Typoman Revised Review

Typoman was originally made for the Wii U, but Brainseed Factory decided to rebrand slightly with Typoman Revised and bring it to a wider audience. It’s now out on PC, Xbox One, and PS4, with some tweaks and fixes that make it worth your time.

This is a 2D puzzle platformer with an interesting premise. You play HERO, a character made out of those four letters who lives in an odd world where typography is power. As you move forward, collecting memory logs and escaping dangerous enemies, you’ll come across various word puzzles that will get your gears turning. Anagrams, puns, and onomatopoeia will be the bane and boon of your existence in this odd yet clever world.

Typical puzzles involve moving or rearranging letters to form words, which then create actions. Find an L and bring it to EVER to create LEVER, and pull it. Create positive adjectives like GOOD or HOPE to steel yourself against a nightmarish environment. Pick apart a scramble of letters and rearrange them to form RAISE, raising a platform for you to jump on and ride. The puzzles can be a bit tricky at times, but one thing is clear: a great vocabulary and sense of word play is going to take you far.

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“Many deaths were the cause of jumping just a moment too soon, and some chase sections can be agonizing to complete.”

It’s not at all the puzzles that bring Typoman Revised down. There are really only two points of contention: the overall length, and the platforming. I love a good platformer, but some of the jumps in Typoman are simply a bit too precise. Many deaths were the cause of jumping just a moment too soon, and some chase sections can be agonizing to complete. Don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate difficulty and needing perfect timing, but it just feels unnecessary here. Typoman is definitely a puzzle game first, and should be a platformer second. It seems to forget that, or maybe I’m just not getting it.

The other issue is definitely the length. You will absolutely get your money from Typoman Revised, but even with some minor additions to this version, you can still beat it in about three hours. If you’re quick with word puzzles, probably less. When there are other options around for the same price that offer replayability or simply longer play times, it’s a tough choice to make.

That being said, there are a lot of redeeming factors. The art and use of typography are simply brilliant. Using stacked up H for ladders, or sharp A for spiked pits are one thing, but forming the protagonist out of HERO or enemies out of words like DOOM is just fantastic. It’s all simple enough that anyone who’s literate can appreciate it, but complex enough where wordsmiths can fall in love.

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“The platforming can be a bit touchy, but for the most part you’ll be stuck on puzzles and not jumping sections aside from a few key moments.”

The art style in general is fantastic, going with a sort of Limbo vibe using primarily black and white on a 2D plane. You’ll see more color the further you go, but it’s all added slowly over time and everything seems to fit the narrative. There’s also great use of foreground, mid-ground, and background so you feel like you’re part of an actual world and not just a denizen of Flatland.

The level and puzzle design is great, and I was stumped quite a few times. Those eureka moments feel fantastic, and give a nice sense of accomplishment. The platforming can be a bit touchy, but for the most part you’ll be stuck on puzzles and not jumping sections aside from a few key moments. Aside from normal progression, there’s a decent amount of memory log pickups you can find too, adding just enough sidetracking to give a bit more play time but not feel drawn out or intrusive.

If you already played Typoman on Wii U, there’s probably not much reason to replay it somewhere else. The fixes and additions were nice, but nothing extraordinary or worth more money. However, if you have yet to experience Typoman Revised anywhere, I’d highly recommend it to puzzle platform enthusiasts. If you get mad at touchy jumps that require perfection, you might want to stay away.

***An Xbox One code was provided by the publisher***