Picking Up Steam: Annalynn (PC)
Pac-Man showed us that collecting a bunch of little pellets in a maze can be surprisingly entertaining and many maze games after would repeat the formula, but there’s no reason you have to keep such gameplay locked to only the halls of mazes. Annalynn’s underground adventure takes heavy inspiration from that arcade classic, not only trying to convincingly look like an arcade game that was released in the 1980s, but it includes four fiends to flee from unless you grab the object needed to turn the tables on them, and you clear stages by collecting all of the little goodies lying around in them. However, not only does it transplant this game style into a side-scrolling platformer, but it has a more than a few decades on Pac-Man, meaning it can include elements to make it deeper and more varied without sacrificing some of the simple charm that helped its inspiration be such a hit.
Annalynn is the name of a peppy miner who just broke through into a part of the underground where gold floats in the air, and in her eagerness to collect it, she accidentally plunges into the lair of four cute but dangerous snakes. The red Randy, light blue Handy, purple Candy, and green Mike don’t take her interrupting their sleep well, chasing after her while she tries to also collect the gold along the way, but by grabbing the Blinding Rubies found in each stage, Annalynn can temporarily daze them, turning them deep blue and making them retreat. However, if she wants to earn a few extra points, she can chase after them and kick them away, and while they’ll eventually drop back down into the stage, the time to collect some gold free of danger has its benefits. The music during the stages is a nice mix of catchy and lively to keep the energy high as you go deeper and deeper down into the mine, a fitting set of tunes for a bright and brisk adventure such as this.
Annalynn’s little scenes don’t really serve to set up much of a story, this a quest for gold and points and not much else, but there are still scenes that arise between regions of the mine and while adding some personality to the game’s cute character, they’re actually fairly smart ways of introducing game mechanics and new elements. The first scene you’ll see not only sets up the adventure but shows that snakes can enter small tunnel entrances and reappear elsewhere in the level, and while there are plenty of platforms Annalynn can stand on, the snakes also have special ledges only they can travel across to help them chase Annalynn without needing to jump. Later scenes will introduce ideas like a little mine that ignites and launches a stream of flames after you run over it by using it as a set-up for a Looney Tunes style gag. Level designs are also pretty smart in giving you time to notice new mechanics or tricks like when the snakes later on realize they can jump down from above if you’re below them, the game trying to teach without being too direct but also not imitating the old arcade difficulty of sometimes having a new danger be learned first by dying to what you didn’t expect.
In a typical level of Annalynn, you’ll usually have a level with a few tiers to jump between, the player needing to grab all of the floating gold and Blinding Rubies which will cause the stage to immediately end when you’ve done so. Snakes will try to chase you to the best of their ability, although they all have unique quirks so they won’t always just clump up into one group constantly on your tail. Levels are littered with tunnel entrances only the serpents can take, the snakes disappearing and often appearing at the closest exit to where you are, but some like Mike will pop up in less predictable locations to prevent you from taking their movement for granted. On the other hand, your jump is perfectly sized so if a snake comes out of a tunnel entrance you’re running towards you can leap over it and avoid a painful encounter, especially since it takes touching a snake once to kill Annalynn. Drops down pits or hitting specific hazards like those fiery mines will also rob you of lives, although in the game’s main mode you can continue after losing all lives as long as you’re fine with the penalty of losing half your score. This makes seeing all of the main adventure’s content in Annalynn fairly feasible, the player not needing to fight too hard to see the later areas like a jungle full of ropes to climb or an icy cavern with the expected slippery floors.
The four snakes being somewhat unpredictable but fairly aggressive mixes well with later gimmicks to keep the action exciting and involved, the player incentivized to move fast to gather the gold but not being able to travel as much ground or take shortcuts around like the snakes do. The Blinding Rubies are a nice and simple way of briefly gaining an edge and releasing the building pressure that can come from when the snakes start bunching up, but besides the more involved final level, Annalynn is content to mostly let shifts in level layout and the few small additional mechanics do the work in adding variety. This does mean you’re always able to identify how much progress you’re making in a stage, but after clearing the adventure once, you might wonder what incentive there is to return for another run through. You can try for a new high score, each level even having a bonus food to grab for points that appear after doing well enough, and there are alternate looks for Annalynn to unlock by getting further in the game without using continues or doing levels “perfectly” where you make sure every use of the Blinding Ruby also comes with you wiping out all four snakes, even in the levels where the vulnerability timer is lessened.
However, there is some longevity to be found in Random Mode, the name hiding that this mode that lasts until you run out of lives might actually be the better one on offer. Annalynn already makes some odd choices like hiding Annalynn’s energetic and adorable voice behind a cheat you unlock only after clearing the main adventure, but Random Mode contains some extras on top of being better structured for the player to return to multiple times. Not only does it introduce brand new minecart levels where you need to time your jumps to collect gold for earning extra lives, but it also has entirely unique stages not found in the main adventure and additional power-ups. Boots that let you do double jumps, a pickaxe that lets you fight back against the snakes without a ruby, and other little surprises await in this mode that initially sounded like all it would do is rearrange the levels you face. Having both modes is definitely the best approach, it’s nice to be able to tie off an adventure as complete while you also have a reason to keep playing after you likely cleared the linear story in less than an hour, but Random Mode could have done more to indicate it’s got more up its sleeve than some stage rearranging and extra power-ups.
THE VERDICT: A quick and energetic little game that carries the ideas of Pac-Man forward into a short platforming adventure, Annalynn provides a straightforward action romp but also a Random Mode with extra goodies and unique stages to supply more reason to come back and experience the game’s smart design. Areas are set up to be navigated swiftly but the danger remains palpable thanks to the advantages the four snakes are given, but you can almost always get yourself out of a bind with some smart movement. Little bits of variety keep it from losing its novelty, Annalynn a nice game to return to for short runs to see if you can unlock a few new costumes for its heroine on the next go around.
And so, I give Annalynn for PC…
A GOOD rating. I don’t hold a game’s short length against it if it does well with the time it has, and the main adventure of Annalynn doesn’t feel slight despite being the kind of game you can beat without having to ever leave your seat. The variety keeps it lively and the game is designed well to introduce and integrate the small shifts in design, and Annalynn already was hitting on some of the easy satisfaction that comes from collecting things quickly and having your success easily visible as the level has fewer and fewer coins floating around thanks to your efforts. My emphasis on Random Mode was mostly to ensure one of Annalynn’s better elements doesn’t get overlooked, it feeling like the area where the game really deserves your attention even though it does work best as the follow-up rather than the initial main attraction. Naturally you wouldn’t be able to introduce mechanics so well with the levels shuffled around, but Random Mode hiding the extra bonuses as well as unique stages and minecart challenges makes it more interesting to return to than just trying to do better at the inelastic main adventure. Some additional mechanics that are a bit deeper than slippery ice or wind that can push you as you jump would make some of Annalynn’s levels feel more distinct, but the boat wasn’t rocked too much and that probably helped the game avoid becoming too frustrating or complex so a deft touch would be necessary if the game iterated on level design a bit more. At the same time, it showed a pretty smart sense for intuitive design conducive to quick but challenging play, so it feels like Annalynn wouldn’t be hurt by exploring more ways to shake up the standard stage designs.
While hewing close to some of Pac-Man’s design did some of the conceptual legwork for Annalynn, it also made some smart evolutions to that format that make it more enjoyable and rewarding to return to. It is reverent to the arcade style of play and keeps certain elements simple, but it also stimulates the mind with its mix of level types and gimmicks that make things like Random Mode interesting to return to. It hits the marks of something that is quick and rewarding to play whether you’re playing it for a bit or going for something deeper like doing better at Random Mode, Annalynn able to repackage what made arcade games fun without some of the issues that came from designing them to eat up your quarters.