Ever since Pac-Man first escaped off the right side of the screen to magically appear on the left, players have had a certain thing for games that skew traditional notions of spatiality. The Village Blacksmith offers another wonderful take on this kind of teleportation in Recursion, a cool little retro puzzle platformer. Having crash landed on an alien planet, you must make it to the flag in a series of single-screen levels. However, you had better be ready to start thinking with portals, as falling from bottom will drop you from the top, heading to the left will transport you to the right, and so forth. Throw in the enemies, the collectible stars, the flag activators, the bubbles and balloons to bounce off of, and some good old fashioned gravity manipulation, and you're in for some crazy fun.

Recursion's mechanics have the clever feel of a stripped down Continuity, and, for the most part, it never feels too simple or too overwhelming. New aspects of gameplay are introduced a little haphazardly, but they feel natural fits, and the game has a good challenge curve right up to the end. The overlay on the pixelated graphics does cause a strange sense of flatness, and yes, expect a little over-precision in the jumps you'll need to make. Still, Recursion is a fun time waster that, despite its name, never gets repetitive.

Play Recursion