“I reserve the right to love many different people at once, and to change my prince often.” – Anaïs Nin
Overview
Spitkiss, designed originally as a mobile game, is a self-described trippy story of boundless and unconventional love, told through precision platforming. Players take on the roles of the spitkissers, and must send messages of love and hope back and forth by precisely navigating spitballs through a variety of carefully crafted platforming stages set within the surprisingly colourful world of a spitkisser’s insides!
Developer: Triple Topping
Released: November 2018
Price: £1.99 – 2.09
Platforms: Windows, Android, iOS
Available on: Steam, Google Play, App Store
Engine: Unity
Gameplay
Despite the slightly unhygienic concept, Spitkiss offers clean, precise platformer mechanics. As the main protagonist, Ymer, players must spit at their love interest across colourful, well-designed levels. This involves avoiding spikes and other obstacles, bouncing off walls and utilising extra spit for additional jumps. All of this requires attention to detail, good timing and accuracy with actions untimely presenting a satisfying challenge for even the most dedicated and veteran of precision platformer players! However, the game is still very accessible with a subtle difficulty curve that eases the player into the challenge. According to Triple Topping, Spitkiss is ‘easy to learn, but hard to master‘!
In addition to over 80 standard levels and for those truly dedicated to the cause of love, there are extra trials and additional ways to play each level such as timed challenges and heart collectables.
Narrative and Styling
Spitkiss features a cute comic book cartoon aesthetic, complete with fun characters and a distinctly minimal colour palette made up of vibrant and high contrast colours. This is accompanied by eclectic and moist sound effects and some nice relaxing music, which although pleasant, fades largely to background noise.
The game uses its visuals and narrative design to tell the captivating and endearing story of a budding polyamorous relationship between non-binary and gender-fluid characters. It does this both through the metanarrative of the spitkissers, but also more explicitly through the hand-drawn story of the life of Ymer, the person whose body their story (and the game) takes place inside.
Summary
Spitkiss has it all; whether you’re after a heart-warming story of romance, inclusive storytelling, and a satisfying progression of casual but increasingly difficult precision platforming gameplay. It is a game with a lot to offer and will appeal to a range of player types and while it is a relatively short game, it is timidly priced and will provide a good hour or two of gameplay for the moderate costs of just a couple of pounds/dollars!
For more by Triple Topping why not check out the following:
Welcome to Elk Prologue Review – Ynglet Demo Review – Triple Topping Interview