Pony Island

Ultimately harmless, way less annoying than a lot of other early indie attempts at meta-narrative, but the themes feel very lazy, despite it pairing with the artstyle quite well, and all of the "game" parts feel like busywork rather than play. It's cute, funny, and has more jesus-killing than a lot of games ultimately should have, so there's clearly a reason why the let's play phenomenon latched onto this so tightly. Doesn't really stand much of a chance to criticism these days though.

There’s gameplay in Pony Island, but it’s mainly one of those “experiences” that is very meta. You are playing as a gamer playing a game, but sometimes have to navigate on the gamer’s desktop; browse files and talk to a few characters on Instant Messenger.

To even start the game, you have to go into the options screen and find a certain option. Later you will need to return to find a hidden options menu to progress further.

Part of the gameplay is an auto-runner with a pony. You left-click to make your pony jump over fences, right-click (or spacebar) to attack, with the mouse controlling your aim. Another part of the gameplay is puzzles, switching out direction icons to move a key to a lock, with a coding/hacking theme. The puzzles are quite a simplistic design but many of them can be quite tricky.

It takes a few hours to complete but I didn’t find it engaging enough to play in one sitting, so I did it in 3. There was one moment where I couldn’t interact with an icon, so I had to quit and reload which resolved the issue.

I think I did enjoy this more than similar games, but it’s still a bit too basic to recommend it.