Axyz Review

If you’ve ever wondered how a person (or a marble) might navigate an M.C. Escher design, let me tell you, it feels like the team at Space Lion Studios may have actually sorted it out in their new game Axyz. This puzzle platformer sets out to push players’ spatial reasoning to its absolute limits, while the vaporwave aesthetic and synthwave soundtrack wash over you. In Axyz, you guide a marble through a variety of platforming levels suspended high in the sky. You pick up required keys and optional collectables as you make your way to the exit. It sounds simple enough, but the mind-bending begins when you gain the abilities to shift axes and completely upend gravity itself, in order to reach your goal.

Axyz is pure, raw, vibey-as-hell puzzle-solving. And its brilliance is in the simplicity of its premise. The game requires that you constantly shift your perspective, thinking about each level from all sides and angles. But there aren’t a ton of controls to learn and you are only rarely required to speed around obstacles. For the most part, you can take your time and assess the situation as you traverse the levels. I was grateful for the relaxed pace, because just orienting  yourself on your current platform is half the battle, but navigating around, across and between platforms is smooth and seamless.

Axyz in Action

One of the aspects that I look at in any puzzle game is how quickly new mechanics are thrown at you in order to keep the core concept feeling fresh and challenging. I was pleased to find that Axyz is confident in its own basic premise. The game takes its time to add new elements and mechanics. Levels are divided into eight “worlds” and each one only introduces a couple of new obstacles or platform types. Most of the levels in each world showcase new and different ways to employ the same mechanics, each of which felt fresh and expanded my understanding of how this game could play with space and orientation. 

Minimalist Architecture, Maximalist Vibes

As you load into a level, the game presents you with a bird’s eye view of the whole situation. At the sight of some of these, I would mistakenly breathe a sigh of relief, thinking “well, this can’t be too hard. There are only a handful of platforms.” My bad. I could feel my brain firing on all cylinders as I navigated through these dreamlike sky structures. Occasionally I would start right in, without any deep assessment of the maze of platforms before me, only to stop two minutes later wondering how on earth everything connected and how I had gotten from Point A to Point B to Point Q. The mental strain of trying to figure out where the hell I was in space was tantalizing and absolutely delicious. Axyz is a puzzle game for puzzle sickos. It’s infectious, and I don’t want the cure.

Axyz is pure, raw, vibey-as-hell puzzle-solving. And its brilliance is in the simplicity of its premise.

The only thing more mind-boggling to me than the solutions to these levels, is the incredible feats of puzzle design that surely went into building them. I struggle to comprehend the sheer amount of brain-ache that must have been experienced in the development of this game. Axys considers and makes use of every dimension, every perspective, every angle at which a ball can roll or fall, to construct utterly devious platforming puzzles. And the infuriating thing is how minimal many of these levels turn out to be. The vast majority of Axyz puzzles don’t feature a single unnecessary block of platform. If it’s there, then it has a purpose. But what is its role in the solution? That is THE question.

Axyz Trailer

I would be remiss if I didn’t return to talk a bit more about the aesthetics and soundtrack. Visually, Axyz looks like an ethereal Lisa Frank paradise. A true millennial fever dream. 90s kids will feel right at home rolling through these vibrant, neon-bedazzled environments, picking up the collectable cassette tapes. These vibes are supported mightily by the soundtrack, featuring a variety of tracks across drum and bass, breakbeat, and synthwave genres. Tracks are broken up by the unmistakable and deeply satisfying “ca-chunk” of a new cassette being loaded into a tape deck. While all of this sounds like it could be overwhelming to the senses, it actually creates a very dreamlike and soothing atmosphere, which is really helpful as you feel your brain start to overheat from the puzzle-solving.

All in all, Axyz sports a brilliant core concept and impeccably polished level design. While it did sometimes scramble my brain, I loved how smart I felt after each level. By the end of each world, I felt like I could start to see the Matrix and had increased my overall understanding of the mechanics. This is a puzzle game built for puzzle game fans, but I believe the pace and overall vibes will make it approachable and enjoyable for many kinds of gamers.

Emily was provided with a review key of Axyz by Space Lion Studios

About No Small Games

No Small Games is an indie game recap and review podcast brought to you by hosts Kate and Emily! They became friends while streaming on Twitch and bonded over their love of indie video games. In each episode of No Small Games, the two will discuss an indie game they both played independently. They’ll compare their experiences: the good, the bad, their most memorable moments of their playthroughs.

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