Filmechanism from Chemical Pudding and Phoenixx is a 2D puzzle platformer in which you record and restore objects. Check our Filmechanism review!

 

Filmechanism from Chemical Pudding and Phoenixx is a 2D puzzle platformer in which you record and restore objects. You’ll be playing as REC, a humanoid camera that has arrived at a new star system and must recover his golden film, which he, unfortunately, lost after taking a handful of pictures. There are over 200 single-screen levels to explore, which you can play in one of three difficulty groups: Normal, Hard, and Hell. As you can probably guess, Normal will offer the standard experience, while Hard and Hell will considerably bump up the challenge. The game has a look that at times reminded me of the Game Boy Color era, with a retro-style pixel look that feels at home on the Nintendo Switch.

You’ll learn the basics during the first set of tutorial stages, which will quickly allow you to get the hang of things. The controls are really simple. You’ll move REC with the left analog stick or the D-Pad, jumping with the A button. You can take a picture with the R button once you’ve collected a battery. Doing this will allow you to keep track of where things are so that you can then rearrange them. Push a block here, grab another one and move it out of the way, and perhaps grab a key to open a door. But what happens if you press the L button? Then you’ll restore all objects to how everything was on the picture you took! And if you realize you’ve messed things up, just press the Y button to reset the stage.

 

Some stages might have more than one film to collect, which means you’ll be able to take more than one snapshot as you try to solve each puzzle. When you press and hold down the L button, you’ll have to decide which snapshot you want to restore – don’t worry, the film and the items it has recorded are color-coded so that you can quickly check what needs to be done – so that you can take each next step in the right order to reach the goalpost to complete the level and collect some coins.

New elements will be added at a steady pace to keep things feeling fresh. Along with the initial deadly spikes, blocks you can push, and keys and doors, you’ll run into blocks with a spike that fall when you walk below them, thus becoming stuck on the spot they land. Then there will be platforms that fall the second you step on them. After this, you’ll run into pressure plates that will make blocks appear for as long as REC or a block are standing on top of them. And then what? How about springs that can send REC flying at three times his normal jumping height but which can only be used once?

 

Filmechanism is the type of 2D puzzle platformer that is easy to understand but hard to master. You can progress through the game and unlock new worlds by completing only the levels in the Normal difficulty set, taking on those in the Hard and Hell additional sets at your own pace. Filmechanism is out on Nintendo Switch with a $19.99 price, offering over 200 puzzles to solve and a charming 8-bit art style.

Disclaimer
This Filmechanism review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Phoenixx.