Review: Hohokum

Do not tell me that I don’t understand Hohokum. There’s not much to get. It’s boring.

A cross-buy — and cross-save — title on the PS3, PS4 and PS Vita, Hohokum is a simple puzzle game. You start off life as a Nokia’s Snake-like being, playing with your Snake-like friends only to then see them disperse. The game – and your mission – is to track down your friends in as little or as much time as you’d like. That’s it.

In terms of gameplay time, though, let’s just put this out there: there’s a Trophy for completing the game in under sixty minutes.

Hohokum is stylised and pretty. Its soundtrack is brilliant too – so much so that on the PS Vita, the game’s splash screen advises that you should wear headphones. I get how this game, like other Sony gems like Journey and Flower could be an ideal case for games as art.

It doesn’t mean it makes for much of a game.

Puzzles range from making big objects small by ramming into them, or by using your Snake-like body to carry a level’s inhabitants from one location to the other. Puzzles are cute and sometimes quirky, but never that difficult.

Finishing off a puzzle frees – or locates, at any rate – one of your other Snake-like friends. They get a cute little introduction screen, and then that’s it. They’re out of sight until the end of the game. Super worthwhile.

The most difficult thing about Hohokum is the way in which the game’s world is laid out; you can handle ‘levels’, for a lack of a better description, in whichever order you’d like. Everything is unlocked from the get-go, and you travel to various puzzles by navigating via portal from one map to the other… providing you remember how to get from one specific place to the next.

All up, Hohokum is a lot of style and very little substance, even with a somewhat small $20 AUD pricetag. Those looking for a tried-and-true puzzle game would be better off with something a tad more formal – and game-like. Those who like pretty colours, bitchin’ tunes or that need a very simple, relaxing jaunt through a world purpose-built for exploration would enjoy Hohokum.

Obviously, I don’t fall into that latter group of people.

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