A few years ago, there was a Coke commercial that displayed the fantastical events that happen between the time when someone puts their money into a vending machine and when the soda dispenses to them. These machines housed all manner of magical creatures that worked to prepare the bottle of Coke for consumption. It was a bright and colorful commercial that evoked a whimsical sense of wonder and applied it to Coke products. XPEC Entertainment’s PSN platformer, Do Not Fall, takes this concept and runs with it.
Like the Coke commercial, Do Not Fall takes place in the confines of a vending machine and paints a picture of the events that lead up to dispensing a drink. Instead of magical creatures running around preparing drinks for consumption, this game features Pipi, a special little floppy-eared bunny that works extra hard to get you your drinks. In the vending machine world of Do Not Fall, this bunny runs around perilous areas attempting to unlock new areas to collect the ingredients to make the drink that has been ordered. What makes these levels perilous is that certain sections of the game floor will disintegrate into nothingness, hence the title, Do Not Fall.
As a platforming fan I found the concept quite intriguing, at least on paper. However, the execution of that concept turned out to be far less engaging.
Good platforming games are a handshake between player and developer. Developers need to provide players with resources such as smartly designed levels, an understandable physics model and, most importantly, pinpoint accurate controls. All of this allows players to be able to take the baton, putting their gaming skills to the test. One small misstep though can send a conceptually great platforming title spiraling out of the fun zone and into a frustrating one.
Do Not Fall takes that one misstep with its fixed camera perspective. Presented from an angled, top-down view, the game starts out functional. Judging jumps going left to right, or vice versa, is fairly easy from the angled view the game provides but as the levels got more and more complex, and more North/South traversing was required the game becomes less and less functional from the provide viewpoint.
A good platformer has to be fair in its difficulty. When players fail, they shouldn’t feel that the game cheated it but rather that they messed up somewhere and can fix their mistake by executing more cleanly next time. Playing Do Not Fall, I often felt that the game robbed me. The viewing angle made judging North/South map traversal a frustrating experience that saw my Pipi falling plenty of times.
The game does itself no favors in the presentation department either. Featuring a menu design, level progression system and bonus shop that could fit in on any number of games on the iOS and Android marketplaces, Do Not Fall has a cheap mobile-like aesthetic that doesn’t quite fit with its release on PSN.
Because of these issues at a certain point, relatively early on, I stopped having fun with Do Not Fall. Platformers that aren’t any fun simply aren’t remembered. I’m not sure if there is a worse fate for a game than that. In this case it is fully deserved.
Note: This review was written with material received from the publisher. For more on our review process, please read here.
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