Toby: The Secret Mine - Probably should have stayed a secret
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iOS
| Toby: The Secret Mine

Toby: The Secret Mine is an unashamed riff on Limbo, with a smattering of Badland's graphical style thrown in for good measure.

But unfortunately it doesn't manage to capture any of the sparkle of either of those titles. It's a slightly blundering mess, with controls that don't click, and none of the sinister charm that makes Limbo so entertaining.

There are moments that are interesting, but it doesn't thread enough of them together. Instead you often find yourself wandering around in the dark with no idea what you're supposed to be doing, or why you're doing it.

Right, this doesn't sound great

Well, no. I mean, clones are rife in the App Store, but this one doesn't even manage to get some of the fundamentals right. You'll spend a lot of your time tutting and swearing as you plummet into spike-filled pits.

You control your silhouette character with a selection of buttons along the bottom of the screen. But you're going to miss them quite often. The jump button in particular is a slippery mess, and that's really not good enough in a platformer.

There are switches to pull, boxes to push around, and monsters that will bite your face off if you get too close to them.

The overall feel is a little more cartoony than Limbo, and if anything it's to the detriment of the product. Where its inspiration traded on a grim and desolate loneliness, here it just feels like a all-too-knowing copy.

And when you mix that together with the clunky controls and the poor signposting, you end up with a game that's frustrating in the extreme. To the point where I was swearing at my iPhone on the train, which is frowned upon.

Right, one to avoid then?

It is, yeah. I mean, it's not a shoddily put together clone - there's clearly some skill here in the art, and to a degree with the level design.

But it doesn't flash or fizz or pop or any of those other noises that decent games make.

And the whole thing will leave you feeling cold. Cold enough that you'll probably want to wander off into actual limbo rather than stick around with it.

Toby: The Secret Mine - Probably should have stayed a secret

A game that wears its influences on its sleeve, but that's about it
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.