Going into PAX East, I didn't know much about Adventures of Pip, TicToc Games' Kickstarter success that is coming to Wii U this spring. I knew it was a platformer that involved some kind of graphical evolution mechanic, but that was where my knowledge began and ended. After playing Adventures of Pip at PAX East 2015, I'm completely on board for this upcoming release coming from former WayForward developers and featuring music from Jake "virt" Kaufman (aka the guy who made the magnificent Shovel Knight soundtrack).

You play as Pip, an unassuming, lightweight block who can’t do much more than jump around. As you progress, you unlock the ability to evolve into an 8-bit form that can punch enemies and wall jump, but isn’t as floaty as the block form. Further on, you unlock a third form that looks more like a 32-bit character. This evolution is equipped with a sword, but is also way heavier. This ties into the story as Pip is a one-bit block living in a 32-bit world fighting an evil witch hell-bent on devolving other characters. Pip is the only one who can switch between forms, which means he’s the only one that can thwart the villain.

What threw me off a bit about the gameplay is that I expected it to just focus on evolving, as in you'd play a chunk of levels as the block form, then move into the other forms in a linear manner. However, the entire gameplay hook is based around switching between the forms on the fly. Specific enemies evolve your character when defeated, and you can devolve at any time by holding down a button.

One of my favorite puzzles in what I played was one where I started off as the second form. I had just wall-jumped to an area where there was a treasure chest blocked by some barriers that could only be broken by the heavier, sword-wielding character. First, I devolved into the block form, then jumped on top of an enemy, which evolved me to the wall-jumping form. I bounced off of a wall, jumping on top of another enemy that evolved me into the final form. I quickly slashed the barrier with the sword and devolved so I could wall jump and safely make it to where the treasure chest was. It took a while to figure that out, but once I did, everything about Adventures of Pip clicked. It's a platformer with a super novel mechanic that makes you think in a different way than you usually would in a platformer.

In the span of the demo at PAX East, I went from barely knowing anything about it to counting the days until it launches on Wii U. Unfortunately, the release of the game on Wii U doesn't have a specific date yet. Currently, the game is on the verge of launching on Steam Early Access with a planned release of May on various platforms.