Go! Go! Pogo Girl (XSX) Review with stream

A 90s style 2D side-scrolling platformer, Go! Go! PogoGirl offers simplistic, casual gameplay with plenty of things to collect. With a difficulty factor that remains easy-going throughout, this is a game anyone can play and afford; it only costs five bucks.

You play as PogoGirl and your favorite pogo stick has been stolen. So what do you do? Why you grab your second favorite pogo stick and chase after the shadowy culprit, of course! If she has so many extra pogo sticks, you’d think she might just file a police report and let the cops handle it but no, she is looking for some quality street justice. Bouncing on the heads of your enemies will inflict maximum pain via the concentrated point of impact of the stick; PogoGirl is pretty brutal when you think about it.

With some minor verticality, each stage is mostly about bouncing to the right until you reach the goal. Like Yoshi’s Island (SNES), the game provides a tally of your performance at the conclusion of each stage. With 100 gems to collect, 3 red gems to collect, and finishing a stage without dying, there is plenty of typical platforming motivation if you are into that sort of thing. If you manage to collect everything, players will unlock a special bonus as incentive. An optional timer can be activated if you are into speedrunning too. 

The main gimmick is the pogo mechanic. Instead of running on the ground, PogoGirl is constantly hopping. At times, it can get a little annoying not having direct control of movement but luckily the stage design and difficulty factor compensate for this. Enemies are easy to kill and most jumps do not require pixel perfection. However, it is a little frustrating that the camera cannot be manually adjusting vertically. Meaning, there are blind jumps that can sometimes lead to insta-death spikes or could lead to a secret with gems; you never know what you are going to get. Since the game wants you to complete each stage without dying, this is an annoyance. At the same time, it is cool than you can hold “down” to power up a jump, stomp with “B”, and then perform a twist attack with “A.” 

Visually, the 2D pixel-based visuals are rather charming and the soundtrack is well done. Extra bonus features become unlocked in the main menu over time as well.

For a $5 game, there is a lot of content here and a casual way to spend a weekend. It doesn’t really do anything new or special but the low cost of admission, lower difficulty, and adorable presentation makes this an easy platformer to recommend. Most Achievements are easy to snag too.

Also available on Xbox One, PS4, PS5, and Switch.

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By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com

Twitter: @ZackGaz

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