Topdee-turvy.
Toodee and Topdee sounds like the output of a rapid innovation brainstorm under game-jam pressure: “What if side-on, but also top-down?” Probably sort of true, as developer dietzribi conjured the game’s earliest form for Ludum Dare 41 in 2018. It’s a throwaway idea that they were absolutely right not to throw away. This fully fledged game keeps surprising and challenging for several hours, with charismatic presentation and a genuine sense of humour.
So, what if side-on but also top-down? It works like this: Toodee lives in a side-on 2D platforming world, and Topdee lives in a top-down 2D puzzley adventure sort of a world. As a result of some self-deprecatingly hand-wavey yet entertainingly animated video game codswallop, the two worlds are smashed together like two gaming tropes in a game design parody tweet. Single screen playfields are traversed with nice tight jumps by Toodee, until pressing ‘Y’ tilts the view a little and suddenly Topdee’s walking on what was the wall. Toodee is meanwhile faded out, fixed in place and invulnerable until the switch back, allowing Topdee to shuffle blocks to become platforms, interfere with enemy attack behaviour, and get stuck on top-down obstacles where Toodee will need to return the favour, until both meet on the level’s exit portal.
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