Pitiri 1977 is definitely worth a play the next time you've run out of 2D side-scroll puzzle platformers and need a fix. Just don't expect another Limbo or Vessel or NyxQuest. That being said, I really enjoyed the unique concept and design. I was born in 1979, but the game still managed to induce an immediate sense of nostalgia. Of course most 80's kids like me did play a lot of 70's arcade games on our parents' Atari 2600 and watched plenty of 70's movies and reruns back in the days of only three networks and maybe thirty cable channels if you were lucky. So I might be more familiar with the era than someone born ten or twenty years later. Either way, like a good period film, it draws you in with atmosphere. Even younger gamers will enjoy the retro style and classic sci-fi references. There's a kid playing with a toy X-Wing fifteen seconds into the intro, and the accompanying Nugent-esque guitar riffs are excellent. Not that the gameplay depends at all on the set design or the constant Star Wars and Led Zeppelin references. It's just a really nice touch.
In fact, the gameplay, while still fun, is a bit less praise worthy in my opinion. The mechanics can get a little frustrating. The game relies entirely on a handful of abilities accumulated throughout the game, such as floating, catching fire, rolling into a ball, etc. They each add their own creative element to the game, but switching between them at just the right moment is sometimes hard to time, and more often than not, these abilities serve only as means to getting around the level. Knowing to curl into a ball to get through a narrow tunnel or floating above every fan you see isn't really puzzle solving. Which is fine I guess. Mario wasn't big with the problem solving, and Sonic never stacked any boxes to get where he was going either.
Speaking of which, the physics engine is somewhat over-reactive. Touch an object and it falls. Stand dead-center on a box or you'll just roll it over. Oddly though, unlike as in Limbo, and Pitiri does everything it can to compare itself to Limbo, you won't need the majority of the movable objects. I don't even know why they're there. It's also difficult to tell the difference between platforms and background, making it easy to miss secret passages and Easter eggs. This is especially true in the darker basement levels. Lastly, after a while you'll start to wish they'd places a few more save points than they did. Dying toward the end of a slow-moving water level can be very frustrating. All that said though, I would recommend Pitiri 1977. It's problems are mostly nitpicky, and I rather enjoyed it.
