Linked Mask is exactly the kind of game my very sophisticated rating system was made for. It’s well made, has a cool art style, decent music, and fairly tight controls.

That said, it’s not particularly FUN.

Let me clarify that. It’s pretty fun until it very much stops being fun. This is quite literally the type of game I had in mind when I developed the aforementioned rating system. It’s “more good than it is fun,” to borrow a phrase from Jeff Cannata (of Totally Rad Show and Weekend Confirmed fame).

Developed by Chile-based Spoonman Games and released in September of 2022, Linked Mask is a precision platformer with Game Boy-style visuals that draws some inspiration from games like Mega Man. Probably the most noticeable product of that inspiration is the way you move between levels. After an introductory level where you’re presented with a few basic mechanics and some story that I really had a hard time understanding, you’re given the option to choose from a handful of different “towers.”

Again, similar to Mega Man, each of these levels features a boss, in this case given a mask number. The levels feature slightly different mechanics and ideas, and you ultimately fight the boss and earn new skills, weapons, or powers (by unlocking a Linked Mask) to help you tackle subsequent levels.

So that’s most of the intro. The majority of that is pretty enjoyable, and goes by smoothly. However, the difficulty ramps up quickly, and the fun starts to fade. I initially tried two separate towers, both with light combat and a variety of platforming obstacles. There’s some challenge, but it’s a reasonable amount. The levels aren’t punishing, but they aren’t so easy that they become boring, which is a good balance, and after a while, you reach a gate and some sort of shrine/statue thing. If you’re me, you would assume this means a boss battle is about to start. Honestly, if you’re most people, that’s probably what you think.

You’d be wrong. We’re all wrong.

Once you pass through that gate, the difficulty ramps up significantly. I spent over an hour on each of those two levels and never reached the end of either. The levels feature fairly regular checkpoints to allow some progress without much issue, but they aren’t spaced at any sort of regular interval. Sometimes you’ll encounter them just a few seconds later, after an easy section, and that’s fine.

However, that’s not always the case. At one point I reached an area where I had to make a pixel-perfect jump to move forward. The issue was that when you started from the checkpoint, there were about 17 jumps you needed to make to get there. I attempted that particular section probably around 50 times, and had to complete those 17-ish jumps every single time. I missed that last jump about 47 of those times. The other 3 times, I made that jump only to immediately miss the next one, which ends up in you either dying, or sliding down a slope back to the beginning (Video below). I want games to be challenging, but I don’t necessarily want them to be intentionally infuriating.

I tried a controller, I tried a keyboard, and I tried taking a break and coming back a little while later but I just couldn’t ever seem to consistently make it happen. The other level I did was similar: It was challenging, but not unfair, until I reached a point where I had to make about 10 to 15 very precise movements in a row, in order. Missing a button press meant either dying, being sent back to the beginning, or both. Similarly, I tried this section dozens of times and eventually just gave up because it was no longer fun. Since the levels are so long, there never seems to be that payoff that some games have where you finally do the thing and get to be excited about making it. You just have another thing to struggle with for 20 minutes.

I eventually went back one more time in the middle of writing this and attempted Tower 4, as I had seen that it was the “least brutal” of the levels from someone who may have been the developer(?). I DID finally make it to a third section of the level, and it was just as hard as the rest of the game, if not worse. It still had the inconsistent jumping sections, but with MORE obstacles, MORE enemies, and now required you to pick up keys along the way to open a door.

I still never once made it all the way to a boss fight. At one point I picked up an item, and didn’t even realize it. In my inventory, the item had no info at all about what was or what it did. It was in my inventory, and it was unclear how or why I should need it.

Overall, I ended up playing this game for a little over 3 hours. I attempted half of the levels (never completing any) and died almost 400 times, or about once every 28 seconds. The big thing it was missing was the payoff you get from other difficult games. The “Soulsborne” games give you a sense of accomplishment when you finally beat a tough boss. With this, I just never got that feeling. Reaching the next section of level just made me feel like there was more frustration, not accomplishment, in my future. I feel like if the 6 really long levels were split into 12 more manageable ones, those milestones would feel infinitely more reachable. The game also doesn’t include achivements, so we don’t even get that occasional bit of dopamine.

So yes, the game has artwork and music that work well for the style. The animations are good, and levels have interesting designs. However, with all that working in its favor, Linked Mask still has inconsistent mechanics, brutal, unfair, and repetitive gameplay, and a story that seemingly doesn’t make make enough sense to feel worth the effort. It is a reasonably well-made game that I couldn’t seem find a way to enjoy.

How much?

$11

Is it good?

Is it fun?