Noita

A Podcast Review of Noita: On this episode we grapple with the impressive and enigmatic platformer that is 2020's Noita. How much do you have to play this game to get over the hump of it being fun?

On our most difficult episode of the show yet, we run up against the limitations of our format for such a behemoth of a game. Can you really play Noita enough in two weeks to understand why people love it so much? How are you supposed to rate a game that people say you need 50 hours in to begin to understand? Where's the balance between "there's so much going on here" and "I am not having fun"? We ultimately decided to evaluate this game based solely on how much fun we had playing it though tried to acknowledge how much is going on under the surface.

Noita is maybe the roguelite/roguelike that people report spending the most time on once you really grok how it works. I (Danny) wish that I was able to experience the joy that folks seem to get out of this game, but I just can't get past the slow-paced early game that comes with being a total scrub. It's a skill issue, for sure, but we can't rate the game based on a theoretical experience! Other fun parts of this episode include David making the case that cold countries make more game developers (?) and some reminiscing about the OG falling sand games of yore.