Summertime Madness

Summertime Madness doesn't last long, and it can easily be finished in under two hours. But it's also not the sort of game that needs to go on forever, either. It's a challenging, engaging puzzle with enough plot to last through its runtime, and that's enough to make it well worth a look.

Summertime Madness is an engaging puzzle-adventure title with challenging puzzles, stunning graphics, a beautiful soundtrack and a wealth of collectibles. While several of its puzzles are needlessly complex, and some collectibles are near impossible to find without a guide, it is enjoyable for fans of the puzzle genre nonetheless.

Summertime Madness is a short, yet challenging adventure puzzler with a great story and amazing visuals that create a very unique aesthetic. Whether you pick it up for the gameplay, the artwork or both, you won't want to put it down until the summertime (or the madness) ends.

Despite some pretentiously cryptic puzzle design in the latter half, DP Games' first effort still succeeds from all of its strengths.

Summertime Madness is like a young artist, basking in his talent and quickly getting tired of his own brilliant insights, letting them fade away, while trying to set the tone with hermetic and indecipherable claims. Although there is a certain amount of brilliance under the surface, it is clouded beneath a layer of confusion. But of course not everyone gets to create The Witness at their first try, so if you are in withdrawal from puzzle games, Summertime Madness should be a partial relief.

Summertime Madness is an earnest attempt at making an emotionally appealing puzzle game, but ultimately misses the mark. The beautiful art style, paired with a melodic score couldn't elevate the overly bloated puzzles and sterile storytelling.

This puzzle game feels like something that someone put up for sale without playtesting it much first. While the visuals and the story are gorgeous. Some of the puzzles are confusing, winding, and waste the player’s precious time for no real reason. I liked a lot of aspects of Summertime Madness, but I wish it contained a little less aimless wandering and a little more puzzle solving to get where you need to be going.

If there’s one word I could use to encapsulate Summertime Madness it would be potential. This being DP Games maiden title there are some true flashes of brilliance here, notably in level design and exquisitely designed artwork. The aforementioned Neo Prague level is a real stand-out statement of the talent at the studio and I hope that they use this section of the game as a benchmark to work from as they build their next title. If you’re a console gamer looking for a game that will flex your cognitive powers then go check it out when it releases to consoles on January 26th

Summertime Madness is a special game clearly built by artists or at least people who appreciate and want to pay respect to the art of painting. It’s a stunning and picturesque surreal world and has some crazy good and difficult puzzles to crack. It’s hard to recommend it to everyone, but if you are into puzzle games, this is definitely for you.

I like Summertime Madness in theory. I like its premise, its world, I even like the fact it’s a walking simulator with a stupidly fast running button. On the other hand, this is a puzzle-solving adventure where the act of solving puzzles feels cryptic and arbitrary, almost as if it was intentionally made for you to fail your first run. With some slightly better puzzle design, this could have been a cult hit among puzzle enthusiasts. As it stands, I respect its premise, but I can’t exactly recommend it.