Thomas Was Alone: Review: PS Vita

     If you were to go back and name your favorite character from the last year or so, there's a good chance you would not name a quadrilateral.  Thomas Was Alone might change that.  I even laughed when I heard that this was a game about "friendship and jumping."  After playing it, I was stunned at its uniqueness took me by surprise.

Thomas was alone. Wow. A weird first thought to have.

     Creator Mike Bithell has gone and given more character to a bunch of four-sided shapes than some entire games do for human ones.  Thomas (an AI) gains self awareness and begins to attempt to free himself from his program and along the way he meets many other sized rectangles with their own personalities and special ability traits.  Who would've thought a bunch of generic names and colors could be contained with 4 tight angles to become entities we can relate to?

    The core game is a platformer reduced to its basic principles.  Getting each AI entity to their specific doorways out.  Sometimes it's one character and one doorway at a time, sometimes it many, many more.  Through simplicity Bithell has achieved a level of artful wonder that is compounded by the humorous commentary narrated by Danny Wallace.  The story, lighting and music are all perfectly meshed together to create a joy in gaming that is hard to match by anything in the Triple A game category.  Even the controls are honed to perfection.  Everything in this game fits together as well as the geometry that comprises it.

     Thomas Was Alone, but not anymore- it's short and sweet, with just the right difficulty curve without becoming frustrating.  The minimalism is so memorable, these quadrilaterals won't soon be forgotten.  Bithell has shown an understanding of games enough to have succeeded in making me sympathize with a handful of colored shapes for a small experience of wonder.  Thomas Was Alone is endearing and heartfelt, and can be considered a modern equivalent of a painting by Piet Mondrian.

     Note: This was from a draft on 04.27.2014