I play games for a whole lot of reasons, to make me think, to make me feel, to make me smile. Sometimes though I just play games because I’m bored and my brain is too exhausted to do anything else, and when this happens I need something comforting and familiar. With a heatwave currently wreaking havoc across Europe and leaving me personally a sweaty mess, I needed something cuddly to latch onto. It turned out that what I needed was Teeto, a colourful 3D platformer full of collectibles and transformations.
The start of Teeto is pretty wild, as it’s revealed that humans have been wiped off the face of the Earth. To compensate for this all the inanimate objects people left behind have come to life, with delightful Aussie accents. It’s suspected that the cause of this issue are the evil shadow creatures that roam the world now, and one smart bunny develops a way to deal with them. Teeto is a big blue blob with the power to absorb these nasties, who will hopefully help save the day and bring back the humans.
Teeto is your standard platforming protagonist, with a double jump and a spin attack they can use to deal with gaps and shadows respectively. This isn’t the limit of Teeto’s power though, because this blob was made to absorb stuff. Sort of like a bluer Kirby, you’ll be able to use all manner of powers on this quest. Instead of them coming from enemies though, they come from random bits of scenery.
The first transformation you get to play around with is the flower, which allows you to use a stem to grapple onto certain plant bits. Then you’ll find a rock to transform into, which can smash certain walls and floors. There are dozens of these throughout the game, which grant you new ways to solve problems with the elements, magnets and the power of cardboard. They aren’t even all useful, like when you morph into a comfy chair and spit out cushions for no real reason. The charm of it all is a great way to get you excited for new stages and new abilities, especially because the accompanying outfits you’ll wear when transformed are so stylish.
Each stage in Teeto has a fun new theme, with some serious variety on display. At first you’ll go to all the usual beaches and forests, but before you know it you’ll be in a regular house solving minor puzzles or going up the aisles of a supermarket. It’s just another way Teeto keeps you invested, as you gather that glorious shiny shit.
Teeto’s stages are relatively small, but all feature plenty of collectibles to find hidden away in every corner. First there are stars, which are an abundant currency used to unlock outfits. There are also the much more important Vionites, which you often get for completing objectives like shooting down flags or finding a key to unlock a chest, and these unlock later worlds. Then there are the ridiculously named Michaels, which are adorable little blue guys with different outfits. These are just worth collecting just because they’re cute, and so you have more of them to throw into a basketball hoop in the hub world.
The best thing about finding collectibles in Teeto, though, is that you never struggle to find them. This is because at the touch of a button you can get an arrow to point to the nearest one, and all you need to do is work out how to get there. If you’d rather play it old school then you can always just not hit the button, but it’s there to ensure you don’t get stuck.
I had a lovely time jumping through stages as Teeto, but it’s not quite going to challenge the greats in the genre. Teeto feels a little off to control, sort of too floaty and too twitchy all at the same time. Outside of that there’s just nothing particularly special the game does over other platformers, and it’s a little too easy for those who’ve been playing them for decades.
Teeto is an easy-going platformer for those looking to unwind, but it can’t keep up with the classics or modern wonders. That being said if all you want are collectibles and charming stages then Teeto has them in spades, and the transformations really are cool.
