IMGA Grand Prize Winner, Beyond Ynth is an innovative puzzle-platformer which provides great value and play.
Innovative Puzzle-Platformer: Beyond Ynth does a lot to separate itself from the crowd
Great Value: A huge world to play through gives you ample value for your money
Practical Aesthetics: it's st*yle won't wow you, but it serves it's purpose well
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Beyond Ynth, by FDG Entertainment, won Grad Prize from IMGA (International Mobile Gaming Awards) this year along with Excellence in Gamplay. That's high praise for a game that, it turns out, largely deserves such accolades. Playing as a sort of puzzle-platformer, Beyond Ynth is innovative enough to separate itself from the crowd, challenging enough to engage the player in the gameplay, and large enough to be called a great value.
At it's core, in Beyond Ynth, your goal is to move your (cute) ladybug from entrance to exit across various environments across a large world map. Crawling and jumping along the ground won't cut it, however, as lava pools, ice, and a host of hazards bar your way. Not only that, but each level has a couple of diamonds which you'll want to grab for completion's sake. Thankfully, there are a number of "boxes" spread across each level, which your ladybug can "roll" from side to side by pushing on the insides of the box. Each box has entrances and exits, and platforms inside it. As lava balls fall from the sky and other hazards (like ice) cover the ground, moving the boxes around, and jumping from box to box, makes for much of the puzzle-play in the game.
After a few easy levels which kick things off, the game begins to really ramp up the difficulty, especially for those trying to collect all the diamonds. Large areas of the world map are dominated by a variety of environments, each of which provides different types of difficulties and thereby different solutions to proceed. On top of it all, there's a timer running down the clock as you play (though grabbing diamonds increases the timer) so while you won't need to speed through, you do need to be timely. The play, though challenging, hits the sweet spot in play, which provides enough of a challenge to be compelling, but not so difficult as to be a turn off.
Aesthetically, Beyond Ynth is more practical than beautiful or artistic. The visuals "get the job done" as it were, allowing the player to sparse the foreground for necessary information (hazards, diamonds, etc) while mantaining a cute visual design. The audio is take it or leave it, in my opinion, but Beyond Ythn has the sort of style to cover it's bare-boned approach with enough cuteness and practicality to not detract from play.
On the whole, Beyond Ynth is an excellent puzzle-platformer that's innovative in play, and hits the sweet spot in difficulty. The large world provides a lot of value for your purchase and, though it's aesthetic approach isn't amazing, there's plenty here to warrant a purchase. If you have a mobile device, give this one a shot.
8.8/10