KLIFUR is hella fun. Yeah, that is basically the whole review, wrap it up, boys. But in all due seriousness, I always have mad respect for a developer who knows they have a strong core in their game and therefore have no need to sprinkle the game with extras—giving the core mechanic the spotlight, letting it shine, while everything else is pushed to the background. Subdued by choice.
That is what I feel when playing KLIFUR by Torfi Asgeirsson. The word means 'climbing' in Icelandic and damn, that's exactly what we are getting. A physics-based simulation of indoor climbing where we control every one of the four limbs of our daring climber. They might not be stretchy, they might not be beefy but damn, our climber is quite limber! I wish my limbs could rotate like that. Anyway, the goal of the game is simple. We have 12 levels with a growing degree of challenge and need to find clever paths up the colored stones to reach the final one with a firm hold of our grippy mittens.
The game is very focused on its whole thing; There's no music, just a few very well-fitting sound effects, and a clean and informative user interface. The soft beige background helps focus on the colored stones. It's all about the act of climbing. It's funny - it seems, recently, we are getting so many great games focused on this activity. VALLEY PEAKS was fantastic, JUSANT was another great title with great controls and amazing worldbuilding and now CAIRN is coming out soon, giving us a harsher lens into the dangers of this particular activity. The climbing genre is on the rise!
Back to KLIFUR... It's a small game, of course. 12 levels shouldn't take you more than an hour, and even that is a generous estimate taking into consideration multiple attempts, especially in the later stages. Half an hour burn time is more realistic if you don't find any of the levels stumbling you over and over again... Like I did! But with a modicum of perseverance and a cup of hot tea, I've managed to pull through. Again, it is a perfect little morsel to enjoy over a lazy evening, a fun bit to stretch your brain a bit after work.
If you're looking for a charming, focused little game to burn some time with, look no further - especially since it is free and fully playable from your browser.
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