Hohokum

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December 2015

Hohokum is unlike most modern games in that it provides you virtually no instructions and has obscure objectives. This dynamic is a two-edged sword - it's originality is welcomed in the modern gaming landscape which offers more than enough uninspired, derivative nonsense, but . . . there is a reason so many game developers include certain design elements.

In Hohokum you play as what I can best describe as an eyeball with a super long tail. You zip about various stages simply for the aesthetic but also to complete various tasks. What these tasks are, however, are anyone's guess. In one level you might do something fairly conspicuous, such as picking up characters and taking them to another location. Some tasks are much more obscure, such as brushing against images in the background in a specific order. As near as I can tell there's no way to lose or die. There is technically an ending to the game, but you are welcome to continue to play the game afterwards and see all that the game has to offer.

The art style is up to personal taste, but I personally enjoyed the lighthearted and goofy design of the levels and characters. Games need more simple cartoons that aren't afraid to be goofy!

I really wanted to like Hohokum - and for the most part I did - but there were some parts of the game that were so obscure I almost stopped playing. It's so annoying to play something when you have literally no idea what you're supposed to do next - especially when you've been trying for close to an hour. It's even worse when this happens multiple times. I suppose it's possible that a person could play this game and not get stuck at all, but I think the average person would have their progression halted at some point. This is okay for puzzle games, and there's an argument that Hohokum IS a puzzle game, but for me these barriers worsened the experience. A simple "help" mechanic or even a map would have really improved things, and it's a bummer there isn't anything like that.

	The colorful protagonist.	Swirling around is fun.
Lots of your spindly friends are all together at the start of the game, but you've got to go find them all!	Twirling, twirling, TWIRLING towards freedom!
Even though all of that stuff in is the background, it is a crucial part of the gameplay on this level.		There is a screen with a giant circle made of smaller circles, and they change colors when you fly over them. It looked pretty cool. When you manage to touch all of the circles you get a little light show.
Snaking through the circles.		Trying to find the last few untouched circles was a pain.
	Oooh . . . glowy . . .
		This level had a series of unique puzzles that you had to solve to advance, like to cover as much of the screen as possible without hitting yourself, or to slice parts of the screen off without damaging yourself.
		These characters will ride on you during this level, and they each have somewhere they'd like to go.
I found Harriet! She's such a hard-hearted harbinger of haggis. . .	There are many pleasant scenes in the game.
		I can't remember what this screen was about, but I think it had something to do with getting that animal shake off his rider, who was an evil king or something.
	In the pipes . . .
There is a character that shocks you if you touch him, and then you make a specific shape. You later need to find those shapes on these tombstones.
A giant anchor with barnacles.		All of the friends are coming back!
	I thought it was funny that they gave special thanks to Conan O'Brien. He played Hohokum at E3 and thus sort of promoted it on his show. He daydreams about playing it when hearing about the XBox One.