Save Me Mr Tako is an action-adventure platformer that’s packed with puzzles, various dungeons, and cool hats for Mr Tako to wear. The game looks and sounds like a Game Boy game as tribute to the original handheld system. It definitely works and adds a certain charm.

The game begins with an intro or prologue, if you will. The humans and Octopi are at war with one another. However, Mr Tako, an octopus, saves a human woman from drowning one stormy night. While this act is frowned upon by the rest of the octopi, a fairy is pleased by Mr Tako’s bravery and kindness and allows him the ability to walk on land and spit out ink to his advantage, such as halting enemies and using them as platforms.

Mr Tako then goes on an adventure to reason with the human and octopus races and attempt to stop the war and make peace. In the meantime, he goes through various dungeons solving puzzles and even doing favors for people. For example, he finds a book for a villager for which he gets hats in return. He also finds the princess, one of his best friends.

For being on the Nintendo Switch with both Joy-Con, the controls for this game are simple and fairly easy. There’s not much to the gameplay. Mr Tako can jump, spit ink, look up and look down. That’s the gist of the controls. However, Mr Tako can find hats throughout the dungeons and each hat gives him a special power. In easy mode, Mr Tako can have more than one hit point if he wears the heart hat that’s given to him if he finds the villager’s missing item. He can also wear a hat that allows him to shoot arrows with a bow instead of spitting ink. This allows him to kill enemies as well as hit buttons from afar and more.

There are two modes to the game, though they’re both more or less the same. Easy mode is more relaxing. It goes through the story and allows Mr Tako to not die in one hit. I chose this mode because, despite how easy the game is, I died a lot. The heart hat only gave Mr Tako two extra hit points anyway, so I still died a lot. The standard mode of the game is the same game just without the extra health and a tad harder.

The graphics are pleasing in the sense that it’s supposed to remind you of the Game Boy. It worked and I appreciated it, though I would love to see this game with the latest graphics especially since it’s on the Nintendo Switch. I think this style choice would have worked better on the 3DS but I appreciate the style nonetheless. The music was calming and paid homage to the Game Boy as well. It matched the gameplay and the graphics and worked well.

Save Me Mr Tako was a nice experience. The gameplay was fun, the plot was unique, and each level was fairly quick to get through. I enjoyed playing this game both on the big screen and handheld mode, though I preferred it on handheld mode. For some reason, the controls felt easier that way to me.