There’s no shortage of games trying to get on the Limbo, Badland and Nihilumbra bandwagon, some cheaper, some pricier, but with pretty much the same approach. Toby the Secret Mine is among them and we played it on the iPhone SE.
Priced at $5, this game debuted last month and it was initially a Steam title launched last year and then ported to iOS and Android. We’re dealing with a puzzle platformer, that doesn’t give you any tutorial, so you have to figure things out on your own. You can walk forward and back, jump and there’s also a button used to interact with objects and traps.
The game environments are hand drawn and based heavily on shadows and gloomy colours. Toby will chase a creature with red eyes, who steals people from his village. The people can be found in cages and saved and every once in a while other creatures will chase you and traps will appear in your path, including spikes, pits, crushing objects, lasers, boulders and more.
There’s a sad and creepy music in the background and the game’s whole feeling is depressing. Traps will involve levers, symbols, hidden panels and even time-based puzzles, where you have to run and pull a lever, push a button and then run and press another one. I often got stuck in some areas and had to resort to walkthroughs, making the game a bit frustrating.
If you get past that and enjoy the core experience, you’ll get your money’s worth. Sadly, this title lacks the heart of Limbo or the genius of Badland. It’s also more static than Badland. We give it an 8.7 out of 10 and you can download it here.
