Hohokum review: no risk, just beautiful free-flowing gameplay

PS3/PS4/Vita; £9.99; Honeyslug

Stress is a common emotion in modern games, but Hohokum tries to provide the player with an experience completely devoid of stress. You play as a multicoloured snake-sperm hybrid that flies around levels solving puzzles, giving rides to small creatures and freeing your snake-sperm hybrid buddies. That’s it, no risk, no peril, just beautiful free-flowing gameplay with a wonderful soundtrack.

The world you inhabit and interact with is a colourful, vibrant world with a sort of Monty Python meets Yellow Submarine vibe, mixed with a good dose of minimalist and abstract art. The scenes you create, and experience, add to the hypnotic feel of the game and “solving” the puzzles is no more or less fun than just flying around the levels.

The soundtrack is just as important as the visuals impressively mirror the mood and tone with a seamless connection between player action and audio.

As you might expect in a game where you control a flying snake-sperm there is limited interaction between your snake-sperm and the environment, with all puzzles being solved by flying into and around the environment. This is fine as long as you continue to consider Hohokum an experience rather than a game. Once you start thinking about this like a game, the lack of variety and depth will leave you feeling a little short changed.

Unfortunately it seems that there is limited replayability, as you find yourself mindlessly solving puzzles once you know the solution, and once you are trying to “complete” the game you are missing out on the point.

Some of the puzzles are a little frustrating and there is a certain degree of repetition, but the puzzle solving is not the appeal of this game, it’s a relaxing hypnotic experience that lets you unwind rather than get wound up.