Go! Go! Pogo Girl is a great little game. Playing as an unnamed pogo champion, you embark on a year-long quest to recover your prized pogo stick that was stolen in the dead of night. Thankfully you have a spare as you bounce and chase the culprit over four different seasons, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.
At its heart, GGPO is a quirky 2D platform game and the visual inspiration of Sonic the Hedgehog is obvious. Your character constantly bounces, reminiscent of Duck Tales, as you guide her across the levels whilst avoiding obstacles, knocking out nasties, fighting bosses, and generally having all sorts of 90s-style platforming fun.
The controls are pretty tight, the music is joyful, and the levels are inventive and full of secret areas to explore. Structurally, each season comprises four levels and a boss fight, and traversing each area can be done at your leisure or against the clock. To extend the gameplay, each level has three medals up for grabs – one for collecting all 100 green gems, one for finding the three pink gems hidden away, and one for finishing it without dying.
Exploration is encouraged and you rarely get lost – uncovering a secret area is always exhilarating, and there are even secret cheat codes to find in-game, although as it stands, I’ve only found one of these so far – in the Fall – but I’ve not yet tried using it! Add in a bunch of hidden levels, challenges and trophies, and you will find there’s also decent longevity here.
Ratalaika Games and developer Andrej Preradovic! really has knocked this out of the park – yes as the difficulty progresses you will suffer bouts of frustration, and you’ll turn down the music after a while, but it’s such a fun nostalgia hit you’ll forgive all of these small issues.
Go! Go! Pogo Girl launches February 10th on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series, and Nintendo Switch for just £4.99 // €4.99 // $4.99.
ooo I need to play this
This looks right up my street! I’ll be buying this!