The history of fonts and typography isn’t something I can remember ever learning from a video game before, which is what makes Type:Rider stand out from other puzzle-platformer titles I’ve played.

Playing as a sideways colon, you travel through ten worlds with four levels each. They’re categorized by the time period of when each font you learn about was created. The art style and music in each world fits the theme of the time periods great. My favorite worlds are Clarendon, which has a western theme, and Pixel, which has an old computer programming type of theme to it. You also have the option to read through history text when you are in front of a historical picture in levels, but I didn’t feel like it was necessary to get the idea about the time period and history of the font.

However, the bonus level is extremely difficult. And not in a good way, but in a frustrating-to-beat kinda way. It’s also a massive tonal shift from the rest of the game and includes the phrase “WTF”, which did not need to be included in an E-rated game.

Within the worlds are six asterisks to collect, an ‘&’ symbol and each letter of the alphabet in the font style of the world. Finding the collectables are pretty easy but finding the ‘&’ symbol is especially hard to locate. They’re optional to collect, so you don’t need all of them to progress. There are also achievements that you can earn by doing certain things during the levels.

As I mentioned before, the art style and music in Type:Rider are the best part of this game to me. The artistry is particularly stunning, as it’s like you’re playing through a piece of art. It’s simple but creative and fun. Some of the gimmicks in the game, like riding on a minecart track and launching a ball through a small pachinko set up, are a nice change of pace from the usual jumping around to get to the end of the level. However, there was a part where I got a minecart stuck into the track and couldn’t get out of it without restarting or getting killed to start over.

While relaxing to play, the game can also be boring at the same time, at least when played for long periods. I also feel like the controls are pretty sluggish, which makes it hard to jump fast to escape situations where you are about to fall or are being chased by something.

Overall, Type:Rider is like playing through a work of art with good music, excellent visuals, and an interesting and unique concept, but not without some flaws. It’s still a good deal at $2.99 and might be worth a look.