While it’s a pretty shameful thing to admit, I’m getting some more gaming time in after being laid off last month.  I SHOULD be, you know, working on my resume and hitting the bricks… but the severance package was quite generous and I think I have earned some time to chip away at the backlog.

That brings me to Tasomachi.  It’s a short (5ish hours for me, and I am bad at the genre) puzzle platformer that came out like two years ago and has coincidentally been sitting in my Steam library for about two years based solely on screenshots.

I understand there’s a Switch version now, too? And maybe some versions for other consoles? Anyway, it should be pretty easy to find a way to play it.  And I do recommend playing it if you like things that are …well, cozy.  Tasomachi is very cozy.

The gist of the story, if you need a story in your platformers, is that you are roaming the skies on your airship-built-for-one when you run into mechanical trouble and land in a weird town where all of the people are gone and there are little cat dudes that need your help.

Naturally you cannot resist the commands of the little fuzzballs – and also they are the only people who can fix your ride and get you out of there – so you are sent off to collect at least one hundred and fifty glowing orange doohickies which will save everyone and blah blah blah just get out there and start collecting.

These are typically in very high places.  Fortunately you cannot die from fall damage.  You do, of course, die the second you touch water.  This is blatant cat propaganda at its worst, but we will forgive it and move on.

There are three major zones, you have to complete tasks to open up new parts of the zones, occasionally you will get given a new platforming skill that lets you reach orange doohickies you couldn’t get to before.  All very normal stuff.

Also, after you collect the 150 mandatory glowing orange doohickies there are still like 90 or so that you can go back for if you feel like being a completionist.  So you could probably double your playtime if you felt you didn’t get enough value for money.

I felt like I’d gotten my money’s worth from one pass.  It’s a really pretty world to run around in, and while I’m very bad at this sort of game the penalty for dying is very minimal so I never got too frustrated.

Also the cats will sell you new outfits.  I’m a sucker for getting to play dress up.  Cozy vibes intensify.

It’s not a perfect game – the platforming is weirdly floaty in places and I had a number of deaths that I do not consider to have been 100% my fault even if I WAS the person in control of the combination of buttons and stick movements that lead to my death… but it was a good use of an evening.