Teeto Review (PS5)

These Baby Michaels just keep on getting cuter and cuter ❤︎

I’ve probably said this a lot this year, but Teeto is a game that I originally wasn’t going to pick up. I am a bit picky with collectathons and I was a bit worried about some aspects of the game. Even when I looked up demo gameplay footage it didn’t really turn me around on it. Considering I’m here now writing a review about the game after obviously playing and finishing the game, what changed my mind? Well, I’m not quite sure other than it kinda grew on me. My mind turned the backburner on, which made it simmer, which then caused me to not be able to get my mind off of the game. This has gotten me to fall victim to hype, or a video that is so good it makes you want to play the game, a couple times so I do try to ignore it. Key word try. There was a small part of me telling me to just pick up Teeto or else I’ll be missing out and I listened to it. This game growing on me weakened me. So here I am, with my review for Teeto. Did this end up being a gem, or should I have skipped it?

Teeto starts with a little news broadcast where we learn that it’s the one year anniversary of a catastrophic incident known as The Great Awakening. It turns out that many, not all but many, objects, animals, and plants around the world suddenly gained sentience. However, while this ended up inspiring the name attached to the incident, it isn’t the only thing that happened. It also marks the day that every human mysteriously disappeared and creatures known as shadows appeared to wreck havoc. Even worse, it seems that there is no way of fighting back the shadows. If they decide they want something of yours or decide they want to beat you up, well, there’s nothing you can do other than trying to run away. Well, no way until now that is.

You see, there has been one Awakened that has been working towards figuring out a way to combat the shadows. Nory, a cute bunny plushie, has been trying to figure out a way to not only fight back against the shadows, but to bring all the humans back. After tirelessly researching, developing, and experimenting, she was finally successful in her endeavors. Her answer to the shadow creature threat? A blob creature with a specific molecular structure meant to absorb and neutralize the shadow creatures entirely. She names him Teeto and, as you can guess from the game’s title, is the character you take control of. Now what about bringing the humans back? Well, Nory has given Teeto another ability: being able to absorb characteristics of certain objects! Paired with another handy little machine Nory created, this is the best chance as any to go to the very site that triggered The Great Awakening to, well, reverse it.

So, Teeto and Nory set out to make the long journey to the origin where they’ll face a ton of shadow creatures, talk to other Awakened, and traverse terrain that would be tough if you weren’t a blob with absorption abilities. Will Teeto and Nory be able to fix everything? Or will the shadow creatures prove to be too much?

I quite liked the story and the writing here. The story is simple, but perfectly does its job. It fits the way this game is structured exceptionally well too. The game starts right out of the gate with a quick explanation why there are no humans here and why objects, animals, and flora gained sentience; as well as giving us a little mystery of how and why this happened. You then quickly get introduced to Nory and Teeto, learn the goal they’ll be working towards for the whole game, and the roles both of them play. You also learn about the Michaels. This setup is all before you leave Nory’s home, which is like the first 5-10 minutes depending on if you look around first before leaving, and after that the whole game is you steadily progressing through the form of getting closer to The Origin. This honestly was good enough for me, but you end up getting a taste of how the world is after The Great Awakening through the characters you interact with; as well as how they reacted to it. The mystery of how and why The Great Awakening happened and why Nory is so committed to fixing it also get hinted at and revealed as you progress. I might not be really explaining this well, but I do think the game does a good job spacing out these story beats and making you feel you’re always progressing.

Anyway, I also really liked the writing style here. I wasn’t expecting that, but I did. The dialogue here is written well here and information is given to you without it feeling like it’s an info/lore dump. It just feels like a regular conversation. All the characters ended up having their own personality, unique voices (in terms of how they’re written, not their literal voice acting), and they were all a joy to talk to. The dialogue is also quite snappy while also being pretty funny and informational. And talking about funny, this game has some pretty good jokes here. Like, it was pretty surprising with how many jokes there were and how many ended up landing for me. My favorite joke is in the beach level by the way and is an overworld conversation (I can’t really reveal more or else I probably will spoil it). Definitely talk to the characters multiple times to exhaust their dialogue and hang around the characters doing overworld conversations (and TVs playing something) as you will be missing comedy cold. The latter you will most likely arrive during the middle of their conversation so make sure to let it loop so you can know the full context (which does make it funnier).

Gameplay here is pretty simple and very easy to get the hang of, especially if you’ve played 3D platformers before. You have your classic jump (which includes a double jump and a wall jump), a glide to reach spots that are too far away to jump to, a dash/dive that will give you a little speed boost and help you dodge attacks, a basic attack to fight back against shadow creatures (and if you’re in mid air you can also do a lock-in attack), and a ground pound. Though, the real interesting part is Teeto’s absorption ability! Teeto is able to absorb the characteristics of certain objects and unlike with shadow creatures, he doesn’t neutralize it. Instead, his form changes to match what he absorbed and said object also stays behind. For example, absorbing fire will give him a fire blob form and absorbing a rock will give him a rock form. He can switch between his regular blob form and a form he absorbed, but he can only keep one absorbed form banked at a time. So, absorbing something else will overwrite the extra form. Normally, this would just be cosmetic, but this is where Nory’s invention comes in!

The backpack that Teeto wears through the whole journey is housing a handy little machine that Nory invented to make proper use of Teeto’s forms. The machine is able to detect the form Teeto is in and create a special ability that you can use at any time. The special ability doesn’t come from Teeto himself, but from the backpack which Nory is there to direct with a nozzle. Yep, the backpack not only carries the machine, but also Nory who is also not only there to hang out as Teeto carries her to the origin but to man the machine. Teeto’s default form gives you a blob blaster which you can aim yourself (and it can lock in if you’re not too far away from something you can hit) while other forms will get a fitting ability like the fire form giving you a flamethrower. These abilities can help you in combat, but these are mainly helpful when traversing or interacting with the world.

Thanks to Teeto being a blob, he isn’t affected by fall damage, but he is still susceptible to damage from the shadow creatures, deadly surfaces, and the classic insta-kill pits. Don’t worry, though, landing on deadly surfaces will put you back on a safe platform and dying will just put you at the start of the area and take away the absorbed form.

You can just beeline to the exit, but that wouldn’t be much fun would it? Just like a lot of platformers, and especially collectathons, there are a lot of collectibles here! Starting with the collectible that is more plentiful, you’ll see and collect a ton of Stars during your journey. Stars, which look exactly as you’d expect, are placed in the overworld either in clusters or as a way to guide you. All you have to do is get close enough so Teeto can pick them up or so they can gravitate towards him. You can also get Stars through destroying the boxes with the shadow creature’s symbol on them and defeating shadow creatures (there are also two or three shadow flag objectives that will grant you Stars). You can then use these Stars to buy costumes in the Shop located in the Hub area. However, if you’re intending on getting all the achievements, I do suggest not buying all of the costumes as soon as you could, just buy one or two that you want the most. The achievements associated with collecting Stars are based on the total you currently have and how many you accumulated overall. Yeah, I had to do some grinding for 100%. Talking about costumes, costumes are also technically collectibles. Some are unlocked by default, most of them you’ll buy from the Shop, and some can be found in levels (and one in the Hub hint hint) either hidden away somewhere or as a reward for completing an optional objective.

Going back to the main collectibles, there are also Vionites. Vionites is what Nory uses to power her tech and each level will have between 3-7 Vionites in them for you to find. These Vionites can either be found in the overworld, of course off the beaten path or hidden away, or through completing optional objectives like destroying all the shadow flags. Lastly, Michaels! Before there was Teeto, Nory actually created Michael. However, instead of absorbing material it replicated instead and they managed to escape Nory’s home. She asks you to collect the Michaels as they’re like her babies. Each Michael are dressed up differently, and each have their own names to go along with how they’re dressed, which is pretty fun and cute. The Michaels are all somewhere in the overworld either in your path (main or optional) or hidden away somewhere and there are between 2-5 Michaels per level (except the final level). You can visit all the Michaels you find in the Hub area as they have their own little island. You can see them hanging out, pick them up, and even throw them at a basketball hoop haha.

While Michaels have a little greeting if you’re close enough, you do get a little help. Nory gives you the Aerofinder which, when you activate it, will point you to a collectible or to one of the optional objective requirements. It can be quite helpful when you can’t seem to find the last collectible. The game will also keep track of how many Vionites and Michaels you collected, how many you have left to find, and if you found them in order through the use of their symbols. The order can help you out in determining if you missed anything sometimes, but levels are open enough that it can just mean you went down the different paths in a different order than the game set these collectibles in or it’s one of the optional objective Vionites (even though flags appear past the Vionite listed after it).

If you happen to miss any collectibles, or want to get more Stars, you can always replay levels. The collectibles you already collected don’t outwardly show in the overworld and the Aerofinder will still point to them, but you don’t have to get everything to have it count. I’m also pretty sure you don’t have to complete the level to have it count if the Stars are any indication (Stars are added to your bank even if you quit the level early).

Each area you’ll be going into are isolated in their own level and the game itself is divided into four Acts. The levels, along with the aforementioned Shop and Michael Island, are located in the game’s Hub area. The Hub area is made up of islands connected by bridges, but the Acts islands are clouded until you progress and defeat the boss that marks the end of each Act. This is also where the Vionites come in as you do need to collect a certain amount of Vionites to be able to power the connecting bridge (and don’t worry, you also get a rail for quick traversal from Act 2 island and onwards). Each level portal will also tell you if you 100% it or not, which is getting what I feel is half the Stars in a level, all Vionites, and all Michaels. The game’s save file keeps track of your overall completion progress as well.

I ended up really enjoying Teeto’s gameplay. I was a bit worried about how it would feel controlling Teeto, but he controls pretty smoothly actually. The camera was a bit weird at first, but I got used to it before I finished the first level and it only gave me a little bit of trouble during the last boss fight. Anyway, yeah, I had a lot of fun playing Teeto. All the levels were such a delight to play through and I couldn’t help but to aim to do and find everything. The levels are all different and really keeps you guessing on what to expect next. Each level is set in a different location and even though some may share the same theme (like forest), they are also different in the way they’re designed and what you’ll be doing in the level. No two levels are the same. On this topic, I really liked how each level was designed. I loved the design philosophy that this game had with each level basically being bite-sized open levels. Not too small that it feels linear but also not too big that it feels overwhelming with how big and how much there is to explore. The only exception are the boss levels, but that’s pretty understandable.

I also found that the game does a good job with ramping things up in all aspects. It slowly does it, making it almost unnoticeable, but the game actually starts you at low stake areas that are comparatively smaller and simpler to later areas and before you know it, you’ll be getting closer to the origin and areas get a bit bigger and more complicated. This allows these bigger levels to not seem that overwhelming like you’d expect as the game was preparing you for it and even the platforming gets a bit more challenging as you get further into the game. This also helps each level be unique as slowly ramping things up allows the levels to add more platforming challenges and even simple puzzles which, thanks to the absorption abilities, you can easily deduce what you need to do. Talking about abilities, the game does a good job with where they place the objects you can absorb and visually telling you which form you need (though it will tell you with text if you have the wrong form). Going back to the levels, this game will seriously keep you guessing and keep surprising you. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was not expecting what these levels had in store (and especially wasn’t expecting the first boss you’ll be going up against). The side objectives also do a good job with giving you variety and encouraging you to explore the level.

I was a bit worried about the game feeling too big and empty and for the most part that isn’t really a problem. There is enough going on in levels that you don’t really think about it and story-wise it does make sense considering Teeto and Nory are pretty small and this is a world that humans did inhabit.

I really liked how each level transitioned into the next one too. You may be travelling using portals, but you do get a sense that Teeto and Nory are travelling normally as you’ll be coming out of the area you just finished. Like, for example, you’ll end a level going into a pipe and then the next level will be a sewer level. There is just one transition that has a bigger gap, but it is explained through an overworld joke.

As for the game’s difficulty, I’d say the game is pretty easy. The shadow creatures are really easy to dodge and defeat and the only times I had troubles platforming wise was either when I was trying to go too fast or trying to overcomplicate it. That doesn’t mean it isn’t totally easy though as exploring the levels and finding the collectibles do make the game engaging. There are some Michaels that are pretty sneaky with where they’re at too. Not to mention the bosses do bring in that needed challenge.

I don’t think I have any negatives here. Well, any big ones at least as I can mention some small things that didn’t hamper my enjoyment and was just a bit annoying for a couple seconds. Like I said before, I do think the character that leads to the reveal of how the shadow creatures came to be felt a bit out of character for that character. I wished the characters that talked in the overworld had subtitles mostly because there was one specific line that I couldn’t quite catch what she said. The performance here is perfect, but I did run into some glitches that were just visual (like Teeto’s head going invisible or using the Aerofinder too quickly after finding a Michael) or just momentarily causing you to stick to a surface (there was a specific surface that disables jump, sometimes Teeto can stick to an edge, and one chase just had Teeto run off screen). For that latter category, none of these forced me to restart the level and I was only stuck for a couple seconds before I figured out how to unstick Teeto (which is either finding the one button that responded or just sliding off so Teeto could fall off). I wouldn’t be surprised if these glitches get fixed soon though. I wished the draw distance was longer, but it really only affected the standalone Stars in my experience. Lastly, it can be a bit annoying if you die from a boss during their last phase.

To end this off on a good note, this game is so cute. I really liked the visual style the game had and how colorful the game was. The style here really gives off cartoon vibes with how both the environment is styled and the various characters. I especially liked how the characters are designed. I liked seeing the various objects/plants/animals that Awakened and the eyes and mouth really made me think about those edits of animal videos where someone put animated elements in (like animated eyes). The cats looked weird to me, but that’s it. The Michaels were also so cute. I loved finding a new Michael since I could see what else the developers thought of and I honestly can’t decide which Michael is my favorite. I was even a bit sad when I got the achievement for finding all of them since that meant I wouldn’t find a new one. I love all the babies the same amount. Oh, and I liked the various forms that Teeto can turn into and the various costumes that you’ll be able to collect. This game also has some small details that I loved noticing. There are a lot of pretty good parody jokes here, both parodying movies and parodying posters that you’d see in real life. There’s even references to other games, with two specific ones being more obvious than the smaller ones. Not to mention the various programs playing on TVs, the fact that you can find the in-game products in the store, the fact that Legos hurt you, the playground having some interactable things like being able to swing on the swing (also the fact that it’s right by the beach which plays into an overworld joke), and the ways the bosses show the damage they’ve taken. You even get to see why Nory named the Michaels Michael and why she’s so fond of them.

This game also has some really good music. The music during normal levels are quite nice, being good songs to listen to as you’re exploring around, every level has a different song, and each song does seem to share an element or two so you’re not only getting a good transition between levels but also between songs. The boss songs are also so good and definitely have the grandiose needed. The track that I liked the most, though, is the track that plays in Act 1 Chapter 6, but specifically the track that plays when you’re not engaged in the boss fight. I don’t know, I think I just really like what I can only describe it as aggressive chimes. The voice acting here is also pretty good. It’s quite charming actually, giving me a “passionate group project” vibe to it and I was honestly quite surprised with how diverse the voices are here. Aside from the odd line or two that I felt could have used a retake, the voice actors here did a great job. The voices given to the various characters somehow matched what I imagined they would have and they all had great line delivery, which helped with joke delivery and giving them some more personality.

Verdict

I’m glad I ended up playing Teeto as I ended up really enjoying this game. I was expecting a cute little platforner to relax to (especially since I played this right after a horror game) and that’s exactly what this game is, but there was more than I expected. This game will certainly keep surprising you like it did me with the various jokes and small details that this game has, the various characters that you’ll run into and the voices that they have, how great the levels are designed, and how good the music is here. Teeto is a really fun and charming game that I can easily recommend to anyone that enjoys 3D platformers.