I played this game at PAX East with Neal Ronaghan just a few months ago and came away impressed, thinking it could be this year’s Shovel Knight. Having played the final version for almost a week now, I can safely say it is NOT this year’s Shovel Knight, but that’s not a criticism by any means—Adventures of Pip is a distinct game unto itself with a unique hook and impressive level design.

When the kingdom’s been leveled and the princess has been kidnapped by an evil witch, it’s up to Pip to rescue her. Unfortunately, Pip is little more than a large pixel. His kingdom is made up of fellow pixel citizens, 8-bit and 16-bit people, but they’ve all been kidnapped. Thankfully, Pip quickly meets a friendly ghost who gives our pal a new power—once Pip vanquishes certain crystal monsters, he absorbs their power and transforms into an 8-bit protagonist! Later in the game, Pip is given the ability to evolve one more time into a 16-bit form.

Each form has different powers: as a pixel, Pip is lightweight and can drift slowly down from a jump, increasing its distance. As an 8-bit kid, Pip can is a middleweight who can wall-jump and punch enemies. Later on, he can also swim. 16-bit Pip is heavy and slow, but swings a mean sword and can break certain blocks. You can hold down the A button to “devolve” into the previous form at any time, and there are plenty of crystal monsters running around should you need to evolve again. Devolving unleashes a burst of energy that destroys purple blocks.

The level design in Adventures of Pip capitalizes on all these abilities and your need to evolve and devolve on the fly. Weighted switches, walking statues, underwater areas and more will ensure that you learn to recognize when one form is preferred over another. Three villagers are hidden in each stage, and finding treasure chests (both large and small) and defeating enemies earns money—Shovel Knight style—which you can use to buy buffs, weapons, etc. in the castle village (eventually). The game is bright and colorful, it controls like a dream, and the music (by Jake “virt” Kaufman) is incredible. It evokes high fantasy film more than a retro-inspired video game.

Now, I do have a few sore spots. First, Pip’s 16-bit form is never fun to use. He’s slow, he can’t jump very high, and he’s really only good for shoving things and breaking blocks. 8-bit Pip is the best form and is the most useful—especially when you buy his break-blocking attack upgrade. As great as the level design otherwise is, it relies a little too heavily on hidden paths for villagers and treasure chests instead of specific platforming challenges. I also never like it when I’ve only got one chance to find a villager and if I miss that chance, I have to go all the way back through the stage. This becomes more of a problem about halfway through the game, when the levels start getting noticeably longer. There are also places where checkpoints are way too far apart, and death requires lengthy retries (I might just be a baby).

But if you’re not an OCD completionist like me, some of those things won’t bother you. The fact is, Adventures of Pip is a wonderful game that’s very fun and intelligently crafted. And I can’t say enough good things about the music—or Jake Kaufman in general. It’s not this year’s Shovel Knight, but it comes from the same place of love. It’s definitely worth your time.