Beyond Ynth review

An indie-based puzzle game with a ton of heart, Beyond Ynth is the spectacularly gorgeous and reworked sequel to Ynth, and the differences between the two are dramatic. Ynth was originally released by indie game developer Krabl, but for Beyond Ynth, they’ve teamed up FDG Entertainment to deliver a delightfully polished sequel that bests the original on just about every front.

In Ynth and Beyond Ynth, you control a determined little bug named Kribl who progresses through the environment by rotating boxes from the inside. It’s an interesting and challenging mechanic, because each obstacle you encounter is a fresh maze, requiring a fair bit of clever thinking to work through. Beyond Ynth introduces four distinct environments to work through: forest, volcano, desert, and snow, and each comes with its own unique perils. Stay out in the desert sun too long and you burn, in the snow, you freeze; not too complicated, but it adds a new layer of complexity to the already engaging challenges.

And rest assured, cute as the game is, the challenges are legitimately beefy. Most of the time you will be trying to manipulate the boxes in such a way that you can get to the next one. This requires a fair bit of practice, since each box has various platforms and obstacles tucked away inside of it, and it’ll take a few tries before you work out all the quirks. In addition to just getting through the levels, there are also bonus diamonds to collect, and some of these are excruciatingly hard to snag.

One thing to note is that it possible to get yourself stuck, which is one of the more frustrating aspects, but it makes it all the more satisfying when you finally work out the correct path. And with dozens of surprisingly deep levels, there’s a lot of hard-earned satisfaction to be won.

Less satisfying is the instant death from any environment hazards or accidentally getting crushed by a box or object. Death causes you to restart from the beginning, which can be super-frustrating depending on the level or how many times you end up dying, but usually that means you haven’t thought your actions through carefully enough, since death rarely ever comes as a complete surprise.

One thing that did surprise and delight me was the brilliantly overhauled graphics. The amount of work that went into the visuals on this game is impressive, because the results are absolutely stunning. Every environment and level looks phenomenal: rich, detailed, colorful, and just oozing charm. I was initially skeptical of the cartoony bug, but even he really grew on me after awhile.

The depth and overall polish of this game makes it well worth the relatively high price tag of $3.99, and in iPad version for $5.99. I know a cartoon bug pushing around boxes doesn’t sound like a terribly fun and dynamic game, but this is really one of the most engagingly charming puzzle games I’ve played in awhile.

Here is a video demo of the Beyond Ynth app on the iPhone

AppSafari Rating: 5/5

AppSafari review of Beyond Ynth was written by Tracy Yonemoto on October 15th, 2010 and categorized under Adventure, App Store, Featured, Fun, Games, iPad apps, Platformer, Puzzler, Strategy. Page viewed 5598 times, 1 so far today. Need help on using these apps? Please read the Help Page.