Human: Fall Flat is a weird game, and I mean that in a good way. The gameplay mechanics are original, and I’ve honestly never played anything like it. The player takes the role of Bob. He’s as plain as they come and as limber as an octopus. Bob’s main attribute is that he’s good with his hands… I mean he can do a lot with his hands… I mean, well actually that is exactly what I mean. Use your puzzle solving skills and guide Bob through numerous levels using only his hands. But it’s not nearly as easy or as simple as it sounds. 

Human: Fall Flat starts the player out in a tutorial level. You’ll notice that when you move Bob around he walks kind of weird. His body type reminds me of Flubber from that old Disney movie. He kind of stumbles around like a baby, going sideways from time to time or just falling to the ground and going limp for no reason (like a rag doll, or a drunkard). It’s kind of funny when you first start out, but Bob can become quite a nuisance after a while. The one thing I did enjoy was the use of motion controls. The right Joy-con controls Bob’s right arm and the left Joy-con controls the left arm. You can move them around like little noodles and grab onto things

This gives Bob the ability to climb, push and pull obstacles. I started out playing with the Pro controller, but it just didn’t have the same feel as the Joy-cons. They seemed to work better when it came to precision and movement. You can grab onto things by pressing and holding the L or R button. You can also move platforms, boxes and other objects with your hands. You’ll be put into a lot of situations where creating a path or walkway is the only way to progress, and the games difficulty grows as you move along. Some of the levels are pretty tricky, but one thing I think everyone will find tricky is getting the hang of Bob himself

Buttons are only used for grabbing and jumping. The X button for some reason makes Bob collapse, like one of those old toys where you press down the bottom platform and they drop like a sack of potatoes, then stand straight back up. But for some reason, Bob just lays there for a few seconds looking ridiculous like a blob of jelly that has just sloshed out of someone’s dessert bowl. I really don’t know what the point of this is…but it’s there if you want to use it.

The bad thing about Human: Fall Flat is that when it comes to the controls they can be a little wishy-washy. When they work right it’s great, but when they don’t you’ll want to fling your $80 Joy-cons across the room. This only happened to me a few times but Bob can be a bit stubborn and sometimes his hands and arms just don’t want to do what they were meant to do. I enjoyed most of the game and the motion controls were one of the best parts of the experience, but hopefully there will be some sort of future update that can tweak that part of the gameplay and make it a bit smoother. 

The main adventure should take a little over five hours to complete. It’s a slow paced game so that helps extend the play time, but it’s also not a super difficult either, so take that with a grain of salt. I really liked the look of the game itself. It’s very simplistic, but there’s enough detail to immerse the player into the little 3D dream world that Bob resides in. The music is actually pretty sophisticated as well. You’ll hear some pretty nice piano tunes in the background, which adds to the comical aspect I suppose. As far as side content goes there isn’t much to offer, but what is there is pretty interesting. You can choose customize from the main menu and decorate Bob however you see fit. You can change his color, clothing and more. It’s a neat little feature and I really liked being able to create my own look. 

Overall Human Fall Flat is a pretty cool game. While the mechanics and controls can be a little frustrating at times its definitely a game worth checking out, for the originality alone. I really didn’t think I’d care for HFF, but after playing it for a couple hours I find myself wanting to go back and finish the game. especially since my Bob is looking pretty fly in his new outfit that I created. If you’re someone who is into platforming\puzzle games and you’re looking for something fun and new to play then head over to the Nintendo Switch eShop and checkout Human Fall Flat, available now for $14.99.