Super Beta Tester
This might’ve been my fault for not reading the description that closely, but I thought that Super Beta Tester would be kind of like DLC Quest (I played this back when it was an Xbox Live Indie Game, R.I.P. – luckily, it still exists on Steam). DLC Quest is this platformer where you have to buy (via in-game currency microtransactions) every part of the game, one at a time, including common mechanics like “moving left” and “jumping.” It was a silly idea that really worked for me. I thought Super Beta Tester would be along those lines, where you do too well at a video game, so the developers keep throwing new obstacles at you.
It gets harder as you go forward by adding new challenges, for sure, but it’s not a platformer, not really. It’s a puzzle game that reminds me more of Lemmings, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Human Resource Machine, or maybe even something like The Incredible Machine. It looks like an old NES Mario game, but you don’t control the little guy directly. Instead, you place tiles that make him act in a certain way when he touches them. There are tiles to jump, or turn in a different direction, or nudge you through the air a bit to slip through gaps. Each tile you place in the level subtracts from your overall score, so you’ll need to be frugal in your placement, but it’s important that you navigate to all the coins hidden around the level, jump on the baddies, and hit the top of the end-of-stage flag to maximize your score.
The online leaderboards are competitive! And the game is very hard, even right off the bat. But you’ll eventually get used to exactly how each tile interacts with the others, and it’s easy enough to restart a level when your dude hops right over a tile you thought he’d tap. It rewards iteration, and there’s a Super Meat Boy-esque trail left over each time you restart, so you can see exactly where you can try again and optimize.
You get new tiles as you progress, giving your character new ways to navigate the world. And there are a ton of levels to go through, along with a level editor so you can make your own for friends/enemies (depending on how hard you want to go). You’ll find that just finishing a level is totally doable, but getting a three-star score by grabbing all the collectibles while being strategic with tile placement is not easy at all. Playing the same level over and over, getting a little better with each iteration… well, that’s beta testing for you!
(Released July 16, 2024, on Catalog. A free demo is available on Itch. Check out the manual here.)