Woodle Tree 2: Worlds Review
I played Woodle Tree 2: Worlds and it is a weird one, for sure. Woodle Tree 2 is a platformer that feels like it takes on the spirit of N64 classics like Mario 64 or Bomberman 64. Basic platforming movement mechanics are here in some way with double jumping and gliding with the giant leaf you carry. The leaf also has other functionality between swatting enemies, carrying water, and activating switches. For the most part, nothing in the game is more complicated than those base mechanics and you learn these things very early on so the entirety of the game is navigating news spaces with these core mechanics.
The core of the gameplay is collecting 3 water droplet things from each of the 8 environments in the game. The 3 droplets are scattered throughout each themed zone with varying degrees of direction towards them. Sometime you can find them by walking along the guided path and then sometimes it feels like they’re off in a corner, hidden from plain sight. Some of the environments really lend themselves towards exploration but because they’re all relatively large, you could get very lost if you stray from the path. It doesn’t help that for the most part there’s not even much to see if you deviate. Beyond the core path, it’s just very plain looking blocks with nothing around not even enemies sometimes.
Woodle Tree 2 is a very simple game and I’d be lying if I didn’t say the game was technically a mess. On top of looking very basic, there are noticeably long loading sections when moving between zones, and the game crashed twice after extended play sessions. Graphically, Woodle Tree 2 doesn’t even have the look of a modern game so long loads, crashes that appear to be memory leaks, control prompts that don’t work, and limited PC options reak of poor optimization in some way.
Despite this, Woodle Tree 2 feels like it has some kind of charm. They don’t make platformers like this anymore and between the basic mechanics, simple gameplay loop, and very bright, minimalist graphics, Woodle Tree 2 was very refreshing. Even at $3.99 on steam, I have a hard time seriously recommending a game like this mostly from a technical standpoint but something about this game is really fun. There’s a great game somewhere in Woodle Tree 2. Unfortunately it’ll take 60 seconds to load it and it’ll probably crash once you find it but the heart of a fun game is there.
Woodle Tree 2: Worlds was played on PC with a code provided by the developer.
