Daz at Use A Potion writes:
"I don’t want to be too harsh on Poncho; the game looks great, sounds great and is also home to some really enjoyable puzzling. It just also features some flaws that caused great frustration during my three hour playthrough. Whilst I can’t promise that I’m not over-exaggerating the frustration caused and the problem is my lacking skills as a gamer, they still caused enough problems to make me think less of the time I spent with Poncho.
I won’t tell you not to buy Poncho because I know there’s an enjoyable and charming experience to be had – just expect moments of pure frustration and anger along the way."
Indie platformer Poncho is a great concept marred by poor puzzle design.
There is no shortage of puzzle-platformers on the downloadable scene, each one with their own retro hook, so standing out from the rest of the scenery can be a daunting task. With one simple push of a button, however, the mechanized titular protagonist of Poncho, just released for the Wii U, can change his position within the pixellated, parallaxing world. Is this clever gameplay mechanic enough to bring himself (and hopefully his game) to the indie foreground?
EB: This is more than likely going to be a week of working through your video game backlog, because there really aren’t many “must-play” games releasing this week. That doesn’t mean that you can’t find a gem in this week’s new video game release lineup, so head on down below to see what’s cooking.
It's a shame that some of the puzzles are frustrating - that is a total death knell when it comes to games like this.