Ploid Saga (2020, Nintendo Switch) Review

DANGER! AVOID THIS COLLECTION!

Also for: Windows

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We are gathered here today to mourn a fallen pillar of game design. Level design didn’t merely die—it was murdered, brutally and without remorse, at the hands of Nape Games, a studio that never should have been entrusted with the care of any interactive medium. It will be laid to rest alongside fun, challenge, and variation, all taken from us far too soon. Let us bow our heads and hope they fare better in whatever game comes next. Amen.

I debated whether Ploid Saga was even worth reviewing, but once I saw it priced at around $12 / €10 on Steam, I felt compelled to issue a warning. This is a collection of four games that feel unfinished—closer to rough prototypes or tech demos than full releases—and every single one of them is bad.

At a glance, they can appear passable. Screenshots look serviceable, and the first couple of levels might trick you into thinking you’re playing a tutorial for something better. But don’t be fooled. Like me, you’ll soon realize this is an effortless cash grab.

It’s particularly frustrating because the platformers have passable controls (with one fatal flaw I’ll get to shortly), tolerable visuals, and even a surprisingly decent soundtrack. The collection clearly wants to evoke classic 8- and 16-bit aesthetics, as if nostalgia might excuse archaic design. But these aren’t lovingly restored relics—they’re modern games that simply don’t work.

The Games

1. Void+

A side-scrolling platformer with a crudely sketched backstory involving “Ploids” (humans fused with technology) fighting time-traveling aliens. You choose between two characters:

• Omega, slower but able to shoot

• Alpha, extremely fast with a triple jump, but fragile

Each world contains roughly five levels built around a theme. The level design is atrocious. Some stages last barely 20 seconds, while others drag on interminably. I saw the same layouts recycled repeatedly with different backgrounds and enemies. Only one level per world resembles a proper stage, and even those are dull, featuring the most rudimentary platforming imaginable. Underwater levels—where movement slows to a crawl—are the worst offenders.

You start with five lives and can earn extras by collecting 100 gems. But since the game is laughably easy, this is pointless. Even worse, both lives and gems reset after every world, rendering the entire system meaningless.

The challenge design is a disaster. Most of the game is insultingly trivial, punctuated by occasional spikes in difficulty that feel accidental rather than intentional. Blind drops are everywhere, forcing you to leap onto off-screen platforms and pray you don’t land on spikes below.

Even more infuriating is the unreliable double jump. If you jump too close to a platform edge, the second jump simply doesn’t trigger. Trampoline sections are worse, often canceling mid-air jumps entirely at random.

Rating: Half a star

2. Ploid

Nearly identical to Void+, but with fewer, longer levels and slightly improved visuals. The gameplay is unchanged, the level design remains terrible, and the final boss is a complete joke. Enough said.

Rating: A slightly stronger half-star

3. Uchusen

A horizontally scrolling shoot ’em up that feels like it was slapped together in Shoot ’Em Up Construction Kit during a lunch break. There’s no auto-fire, forcing you to mash the fire button endlessly. The game consists of a handful of repeating levels, and every boss is the same immobile alien encased in metal, firing thin lasers straight ahead.

You can park your ship above the boss and kill it with infinite missiles without taking a single hit.

Rating: Zero stars

4. Uchusen 2

A vertically scrolling shooter that swings wildly in the opposite direction: it’s brutally hard regardless of ship choice. It at least features auto-fire and power-ups, but poor collision detection and baffling design choices ruin it.

You only get one life, no checkpoints, and power-ups that barely do anything before disappearing. The d-pad isn’t supported, forcing you to use an imprecise analog stick for eight-directional movement. There’s no invincibility window after taking damage, yet you can inexplicably fly through enemies without harm.

The first boss spams homing missiles relentlessly. I briefly glimpsed the second boss only because the screen kept scrolling after I died. I also managed to trigger an error code by activating a special attack near a boss. That’s when I quit.

Rating: Half a star

Final Verdict

Nape Games demonstrates a fundamental lack of design competency. While there’s some artistic flair on display, the studio shows no understanding of fair challenge, difficulty curves, or meaningful progression. At €10 or $12, Ploid Saga is a rip-off. I bought it on sale for about $2—and even that was too much.

Consider yourself warned.