Platform games don’t have the fame they did back in the 90s. At least “pure” platform games, without artifice, powers or combat. Only you and the obstacles ahead with the only ability to jump.

Back Again is a game that is part of the redoubt that today would be those “pure” platform games.
But before getting into the matter, let’s contextualize the game since many of you will not know it for its “low” profile.

Back Again has been developed by Manning Media. Despite sounding like a solid company, it is an almost one-person company formed by the alma mater behind the game: Dexter Manning. Only 4 or 5 names appear in the game’s credits, so this is a low-budget game that aims to be accessible to everyone due to its low price.
You can find the analyzed version in the Playstation Store for only $3. The game was launched on PC on October 12.

Many of you will wonder how much those $3 “stretch.” Well, the game’s duration is relative in this type of title, in which there is no difficulty selector, and the menu is the same for everyone. Even so, it would be between less than 1 hour for the fastest and most skillful and 2 hours for those who have to repeat a segment more times.
As I said, the difficulty is the same for everyone, and for some, it will be a very affordable title, but others may get stuck more in the final part.

At this point, it is worth clarifying that the difficulty of the final part is not given by new mechanics nor by a learning curve that you arrive late. It is because those “checkpoints” are longer in the last part. That is, we have long sections between checkpoints and, therefore, a greater probability of failure and, on many occasions, failures.
And for most “hardcore gamers,” you can always go to a game mode where you have to pass the game without dying even once and without worthwhile checkpoints. On the opposite side, we have an achievement that is unlocked by failing more than 100 times in the game.

As for the gameplay, it is a fundamental platform since we can only jump. But it is that we also limit ourselves to jumping between platforms with the only addition, sometimes, of avoiding moving red blocks.
Speaking of colours, the game has a very eclectic colour aesthetic: we only have white, black and red. We must avoid red, and we can step on white and black as the void, the shadow. The game takes place in a void from which we must escape through the obstacles we encounter.

As we try, we’ll hear the narrator’s voiceover. We will listen to his comments about it and his will without wanting to go into spoilers. The title adopts the name “Back Again” since it is the phrase that will always tell us when we go back to the last checkpoint.
We will also be accompanied by background music to help you focus on your goal and give some “flavour” to such a simple scenario.

Final Thoughts

The controls are a bit hard to get used to when it comes to pure gameplay. Being a platform in the first person and not in the third is usually something more familiar; you must anticipate your jumps well, always looking down to see where you fall. The jump responds well but feels like “floating” more than jumping, mainly because of the curve that is drawn and because, in the middle of the jump, we can redirect the movement of our character to one side and then the other, for example.
Even so, precision will be a requirement to advance and the minimum failure is paid for with your fall into the void.