Ten months after its initial PC release, Teslagrad has made its way to the Wii U. The game has roots in the Metroidvania genre and encourages exploration, but the main attraction is a series of magnet-based puzzles. Pun intended.

At its outset players are shown an old-European town and thrust into a dramatic chase scene in which a young boy flees his home during a stormy night, pursued by a group of burly, Russian-looking men. This is when the game makes its remarkable first impression. A beautiful parallax effect gives depth to the town with numerous layers shifting dynamically as the boy traverses the scenery. Our nameless hero finds refuge in the massive, abandoned Tesla Tower — the adventure’s primary setting.

Teslagrad’s presentation is immaculate. Slick visuals are complemented by a beautiful, emotional soundtrack. I finished the game and purposefully left the soothing menu music playing in the background. It’s that good. The hand-drawn animation stands toe-to-toe with that of games like Child of Light and Murumasa: The Demon Blade, but sets itself apart with adorable comic-like character drawings in a Steampunk setting. I felt like I could screenshot just about any moment in the game and frame it on my wall. The attention to detail and fluidity of each animation is staggering.

Rain Games’ self-proclaimed “voiceless storytelling” manages to convey a gripping, mysterious narrative with exactly zero words. Instead players piece together the story via drawings on the walls and the most interesting implementation of cut scenes I’ve ever come across. Strewn throughout the tower are a handful of puppet theaters which come to life upon the boy’s presence and display a brief episode about a cruel king and a group of sorcerers known as Teslamancers.

As the boy ascends the Tesla Tower he gains new abilities from ancient Teslamancer technology. The Magnet Glove changes the polarity of objects and the Blink Boots provide a lightning-quick teleportation to the left or right. My favorite, the Polarity Cloak, grants the boy himself magnetic polarity so that he can essentially fly by means of repulsion from electromagnets. Each upgrade is spaced out so that players aren’t overwhelmed with an influx of techniques all at once.

Puzzles in Teslagrad don’t pull any punches. These cleverly constructed conundrums rely on your problem-solving skills and flawless platforming technique. The trial-and-error approach works well for the game’s puzzles, and I was eager to give them another go with knowledge gleaned from my previous attempts. Many “lightbulb moments” are to be had in the Tesla Tower.

If the boy gets hit once, he’s dead, and is sent back to the entrance of the room. This doesn’t pose a problem for most of the game, as there is no penalty for death. However, many of the deaths seemed more like the game’s fault than my own. Oftentimes my inputs were perfect but the boy’s onscreen actions wouldn’t correspond and a frustrating death would ensue.

For the most part Teslagrad adheres to a reasonable incline in difficulty. There are moments, though, when the challenge spikes in a way that’s inconsistent with the rest of the game. For example, one part requires the boy to navigate an area of the central tower rife with electricity traps. Players must use twitch gameplay akin to that found in Super Meat Boy to successfully navigate said traps. It’s obnoxiously difficult. Nothing prepares the player for this type of gameplay, especially not in a way that requires such precision. This isn’t even an optional side-challenge, but a necessary obstacle to complete the story, and it felt out-of-place in contrast with the game’s typically mild puzzle platforming.

Boss battles are a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, these sequences are stunning. Dynamic lighting, music, and clever employment of in-game mechanics culminate in a grand spectacle for each of these five encounters. All of the ingredients for success are here, but this is where the one-hit-death mechanism feels out of place. There’s no checkpoint system, so even if you complete one phase of the battle, a death means restarting the entire ordeal. I had to attempt some of these bosses upwards of 20 times due to cheap deaths, which effectively slammed the brakes on the game’s otherwise brisk momentum.

This release also suffers some technical issues. The Tower is large, and it’s understandable that there would be some loading, but instead of opting to transition with a black screen the game awkwardly freezes up when you approach a door from the central Tower area. These hiccups only lasted a few seconds, but it’s a noticeable slowdown.

The game doesn’t offer Pro Controller support (though Rain Games have indicated that it may be patched in), so players are relegated to the clunkier Wii U GamePad as the sole input-method. Off-screen play works well, but in order to fully appreciate the game’s art, you’ll want to experience this one on the big screen. The GamePad’s display is home to a bare-bones map of the Tower which offers no help in locating the well-hidden capsules spread throughout the game. This only became an issue when the game requires a certain number of these capsules to proceed. It would have been helpful to at least have the option to highlight the rooms which still contained capsules.

A casual playthrough runs about six hours, though completionists will be able to squeeze a few more hours out of their experience. Those patient enough to locate all 36 of the game’s capsules are privy to a brilliant alternate/extended ending.

Aesthetically impeccable, Teslagrad stumbles in the pacing and mechanics department, but delivers a mostly enjoyable experience nonetheless. I recommend it to fans of Braid and Portal. A sequel, World to the West (working title), has begun production, and I’m very much looking forward to exploring more of the Teslagrad universe.

7.5 / 10