39 Days to Mars [Review]
39 Days to Mars, a steampunk-styled 2D side-scrolling puzzle game that is intended to be played as a co-op experience. The game was both developed and published by It’s Anecdotal. Now, the game can be played single player but it is intended as a co-op game and you might not get the proper or full experience when playing by yourself. With a friend, you will be controlling two engineers/explorers who have decided to create a spaceship that will (obviously) take them to Mars!
The game has a simple and soothing art style, a nice warm background, and slightly darker and lighter shades for the foreground. The characters are simply white with thick outlines, but in a way, it adds to the ridiculousness of the protagonist's personalities (who are, admittedly, pretty silly). The personalities also come out in the full voice acting the game has, they have old-time-y fashioned enunciations and make them sound just as silly as they look. The game has a steampunk environment, so the puzzles often follow the theme of large exaggerated locks that need to be clicked into place, or gears that have to be turned to turn the lights on. The puzzles aren’t too difficult and honestly could be considered more difficult if you have a partner who likes to mess around. Luckily we didn’t have many problems with the puzzles other than putting together a map like a puzzle piece. You have to both be holding the piece to turn it to the proper orientation and it can be hard to judge.
All of the puzzles need to be completed by working together. Like moving a fishing line through a maze, one player moves up and down while the other moves the line left and right. Or opening locks while one player holds the lock open and the other removes it. I’m not entirely sure how interesting the puzzles would be when playing by yourself as they are heavily centered around teamwork.
I did try single-player to see how the puzzles work. They are the same puzzles as they are in multiplayer but you control both hands when in the puzzle. It’s a bit awkward to navigate but it allows you to play by yourself. Outside of puzzles, the game is similar to a point-and-click. Except in 39 Days to Mars, you control a character and walk around to click the ‘a’ button on anything and everything that allows you to. I don’t see a lot of recent games that are made with co-op in mind so it was nice to play a game that is. 39 Days To Mars should have a 6/10 and is available on PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and Steam.