Flywrench feels like an over ambitious flash game that got out of hand.

In Flywrench you are tasked with many levels of difficult mazes. The challenge is to navigate through these mazes and the many obstacles within. Nidhogg describe it as:

“A frenetic action game from the makers of Nidhogg about piloting an aerobatic ship through the depths of space. Flip your ship’s polarity to match the colors as you fly, drop, and bounce through an unrelenting series of trials. You will die, you will learn, and maybe, just maybe you will master the skills to reach the heart of the solar system.”

Sounds great doesn’t it? Well it kinda is in it’s own little way but I’m struggling so madly with the controls. Let me explain, I’m playing on a Macbook.

Now don’t start hating on me just yet. I often like to review games on Mac purely because they don’t get enough love. Yet here we are with a brand new game that’s also on brand new consoles and a Mac can actually play it.

Well… that’s simply because of the shit graphics.

Graphics

Flywrench is certainly lacking in the graphics department. The market is quite obviously flooded with retro graphics from indie developers at the moment but Nidhogg seem to have gone pre-retro, like Atari Asteroids retro, something my dad whispered about whilst watching me play Super Mario as as child.

I mean the spaceship or wrench or whatever it’s supposed to be looks just like a little stick that bends in the middle when you press a button.

Controls

I’m finding the controls on Flywrench so damn difficult. Perhaps I should of got it on console as the keyboard just isn’t working for me. X or Z to change your ship into whatever it’s supposed to change into and then < or > to move across the screen. Sounds simple but it really isn’t. The controls seem to play a huge part in just how difficult it is to guide your ship through the maze and the obstacles within. I can’t decide whether the controls are plain awful or if I’m just really crap at it.

Music

The score of Flywrench really is one of the saving graces. It forces you to play the game fast, for you to try and rush the maze and for you to die. I found myself stopping many times throughout the game and reminding myself to slow down. It really is quite cheery and energetic and fits well with what Nidhogg have tried to accomplish, which from what I gather is purely just to add to the difficulty.

Conclusion

As I said on my opening line, Flywrench feels like one of those flash games that we all got into whilst exploring the internet for the first time. Weird keyboard controls and little levels to beast our way through on our lunch break, or whilst the teacher wasn’t watching in IT class.

It’s a good game but that’s about it for me. The mazes are hard, the controls are harder but I never really felt like I was achieving much. Do I enjoy it? Yes. Will I complete it? Doubt I can be that bothered to be honest.