Reed Remastered Review – Does This Deserve A Reed?

Originally released as a mobile game, Reed has now been remastered as Reed Remastered for the Nintendo Switch. A puzzle game at heart, but does it have anything else to offer? Lets find out!

Story

Reed Remastered offers a fairly basic story that really doesn’t offer anything extra to the experience. You could take it or leave it. But, for what it’s worth, you play as Reed, a small creature that was created purely to save the world!

Don’t worry, there’s more. Many moons ago, an old ‘supercomputer’ created the virtual world. A world that is now breaking down. I mean, that’s pretty much it, unfortunately. Help us, Reed! You’re our only hope.

How does Reed save the world? Well, by collecting various cubes of information, of course! Collecting these cubes essentially recalibrates the almighty supercomputer.

Gameplay

Reed Remastered is a minimalistic, puzzle platformer game that sees players traverse 50 short levels collecting cubes in order to open the door to the next level. The gameplay kind of reminds me of the likes of Super Meat Boy – short, challenging levels that often spike in difficulty.

Each level contains various things that can stop you getting to your goal, and with a one-hit-death mechanic, trial-and-error plays a massive part here. You will encounter many traps and obstacles throughout your levels that will easily kill you but you can also encounter a deadly, goofy-looking chicken. Be mindful of where you step.

Majority of Reed Remastered’s levels will take a matter of moments to complete, but I did find its difficulty to be very inconsistent. You can play through 5 levels with ease and then encounter 1 you will be stuck on for a good couple of minutes, then back to easily completing them again.

Luckily, Reed Remastered’s controls are pretty solid making for less aggravating gameplay. Button response is tight and button combinations are incredibly simple.

Audio

Reed Remastered is packed with ambient music that creates a mesmerizing atmosphere. It’s pretty basic and repetitive throughout each level, but this dark-synth never becomes annoying.

There isn’t much in the way of sound effects other than the noises made from collecting the cubes and jumping, which is why it was vital that the soundtrack get it right, seeing as it will be what you will hear throughout the entire game.

Visuals & Performance

Hands down, the best thing about Reed Remastered is its visuals. The pixel art looks absolutely stunning. Each level follows the same sort of pattern of this archaic, virtual structure and although it would’ve been nice to have a little bit of diversity within the levels, the detail shown in each and everyone is incredible. Not to mention, Reed looks absolutely adorable, and I like adorable things.

I encountered no performance issues throughout my entire playthrough, which was a pleasant surprise. Everything ran as it should both in docked and handheld mode. No complaints here.

Value

Reed Remastered is priced at just $4.99 in the US, £4.99 in the UK and 4.99 in Europe. I think these are incredibly fair prices for the content on offer. Sadly, it doesn’t offer much in the way of replayability and the story is short-lived, but if you’re a fan of puzzle platformers, you will get some enjoyment out of this.

Reed Remastered Review provided by SwitchWatch.co.uk
Developer: PXLink
Release Date: February 14th, 2020
Price: $4.99, £4.99, €4,99
Game Size: 33.0MB