Review: Glyph

• Platforms: PC (Reviewed), Nintendo Switch
• Developer:  Bolverk Games
• Publisher: Bolverk Games
• Release Date: August 9th, 2021

With game design pivoting more towards massive open worlds and experiences that can take upwards of 50 hours to complete, sometimes it’s a good palate cleanser to unwind with a relaxing Indie title that can be enjoyed in short spurts, or an hour or two at a time. Bolverk Games’ Glyph is exactly that, a modern take on the Marble Madness/Super Monkey Ball formula that can be played for 15 minutes or hours on end.

In Glyph you take control of a small mechanical scarab, rolling around each level like Samus Aran in her morph ball, collecting coins and keys and making your way to the portal at the finish line. This may sound easy enough, but you’ll need to navigate through a fractured civilization with toxic sands that will destroy your scarab on contact. To say Glyph is simply a Super Monkey Ball or Marble Madness clone would be doing the game a major disservice, as it adds many mechanics that bring speed and verticality to its gameplay. Both the new mechanics and the game’s difficulty are paced out nicely, introducing new abilities steadily to keep each level interesting.

Glyph begins by teaching you simple mechanics such as the double jump, the glide, and the bounce, and just when you think you’ve got the hang of these abilities you’ll need to combine them in unique and challenging ways to make it through a gauntlet of both exploration and time trial stages.

In Glyph’s 80+ levels there are many secrets and collectibles to find, the first being the previously mentioned keys that are a necessity in order to exit each level. There are also coins scattered throughout each stage, and rounding up every coin will unlock artifacts that can be found in hard to reach areas. Lastly there are gems, which are also found in places that will have you scratching your head and saying “How on earth do I get up there?”. While you certainly don’t need to be a completionist to finish Glyph, you will need to be proactive and collect as much of all of these items in order to unlock further levels and sections of the world map. My personal favourite stages were the time trial levels, as they provided the biggest challenge. Racing against the clock and using pinpoint accuracy on the platforming while collecting all of the keys provided a nice contrast to the more relaxing exploration stages.

In a game like this where precision is such a key to the gameplay experience, the controls and physics will either make the game sink or swim. Thankfully, the controls for Glyph feel extremely tight and responsive, with the scarab ball always going exactly where you guide it. Any misstep or miscalculation never feels like you’ve been cheated by the game, and instead always feels like a learning experience for the player.

For a game that solely takes place in a desert environment, Glyph somehow manages to pack in a ton of bright, vibrant colours to make each level a visual treat. The soundtrack is no slouch either, with each track providing a relaxing vibe that meshes nicely with the gameplay. The attention to detail on the sound effects is also a nice touch, specifically the subtle sound of the metallic body of the scarab clinking across the stone pathways.

Overall, Glyph is an impressive little 3D platformer that keeps the spirit of classic games like Marble Madness and Super Monkey Ball, while adding its own twists and mechanics to make it feel like its own. Whether you’re looking for a game to fill in some downtime between big AAA releases, or a platformer that is somehow both relaxing and challenging at the game time, Glyph may just be the game for you.

A Steam review code for Glyph was provided by Bolverk Games