Most of the people I love to play games with are now scattered around the country. And, whenever I ask my flat mates if they want to play I’m met by some pretty foul language. I know, I know – sad reacts only please. All it means really is that I now immerse myself into solo driven games a lot more. So, when I started my play through of Heave Ho, safe to say I did not expect myself to have a good time. It’s a new game from Devolver Digital, who have brought us some great experiences on the Switch (the list is endless!), but it didn’t seem to be my thing. Oh, I was so wrong.

Heave Ho has both a single player and multiplayer aspect. Naturally, I heaved myself on over to the single player to see what the game was all about. You play as, well, some sort of ghastly-looking head with no legs, just arms. Using the analog sticks, you move yourself around, and use the L button to attach your left hand to anything, and R button to attach your right arm. These controls are simple and incredibly intuitive. There a few times where you’ll try to grab on to something, thinking you’ve put enough pressure on the button but then falling to your spluttery death. However, they work very well most of the time. The aim of the game is to make your way to the goal at the end by any means you can, and this is incredibly fun.

There are 9 different worlds for you to traverse, and each has their own visual style with slightly different gaemplay caveats. One world takes on a jungle theme, with beautifully hand-drawn backdrops of greens and browns, which will eventually be met with purple stains of your blood. The visual theme here is met with ropes that you use to swing from object to object until you eventually reach the end point and move on.

Another world took on a cave style. The caveat here was that you could only see part of the level at any one time, meaning you’ll be taking a real stab in the dark with some of your movements. The world and level designs really are excellent. They are all very different, and stretch the core game mechanics to new levels to keep the experience fresh. I’d spend ages trying, and trying again until I finally managed to keep my characters hand in the right place and then make it over to the goal. The feeling of achievement left me grinning at the screen. It takes a lot to make a trial and error game feel that rewarding.

Clinging on for dear life, trying to make the next jump, then a llama in sunglasses comes along. No words.

While I had some good fun with solo play, even being better than I anticipated, I still found myself losing interest a little. The level design is great, but with no real narrative hook, I was wondering what more I’d get out of the game. It can be a rewarding experience, but it can also become a tad aimless. The aimlessness causes it to lose its addictive nature.

However, this is where the breakthrough came. One of my flat mates came to my door asking why I was screaming and shouting in both joy and frustration. I told him about the game and, to my surprise, he looked at his watch, paused a moment, then issued a ‘what the hell’ and gave it a go with me. This was HUGE. I hope when you’re reading this review you realise what a big deal this was for me. I was praying that he would actually enjoy the experience.

So, I put the switch in the dock, explained to him the physics-based nature of it and we got playing. All I can say is that after a few hours – yes HOURS of continuous play with him, it made me really wish I had more of these kind of moments with local multiplayer games. Heave Ho really does excel in this format. You can play up to 4 players, and while reaching the goal remains the objective, the difficulty ramps up.

You have to rely on heaving each other into the next object, sometimes forming a chain of sorts to get you to the goal. You’ll be frantically screaming instructions at each other only to see one of you make the leap of faith that brings all your hard work come crashing down. It really is thrilling stuff. LOTS of anger can creep in, and Joe did threaten to stop paying rent at several points if I didn’t up my game. The game provides many a laugh, and is incredibly addictive.

I felt like Tarzan from an alternative world where he is purple and has no legs

One of the only criticisms I can level at the game is that the levels are exactly the same in solo as they are in multiplayer. After I’d spent a few hours on my own with the game, going into multiplayer and seeing the same levels was disappointing. I still had buckets of fun of course, but it did make the experience feel a tad repetitive. I already knew the routes to take and skills to employ. The difference in strategy and tactics you’ll need to use between modes does mean this isn’t a huge problem, but I felt like variation here would’ve taken the game to that next level.

Heave Ho does feature some really neat customisation options that added to the fun. At the start of your play through, you choose what colour you want your character to be, what facial hair they have and even what garment they want on their head. This created some extra laughs, and the fact that in either mode you can gain coins to use to purchase special outfits was the icing on the cake. It added a real impetus to your runs, and added to the tense atmosphere as you try gather the coins. These can also be gained through neat little mini games that can be accessed by pulling a rope that occasionally pops up in a level. One I enjoyed the most took on a basketball style, and was a nice change from the core levels that helped keep the game fresh.

Joe was clinging on to my arm. I tried to swing him across the sphere. We failed spectacularly.

I was fortunate enough in the end then that I found a friend to play with, and I hope that the next time we have a few people round we can get Heave Ho out. Playing on your own is fun but does have its flaws. It’s when you get into multiplayer that this game really succeeds. Like I said I haven’t played too many of these local multiplayer focused games, and i didn’t expect to enjoy it. But, i really did enjoy it, and with the gorgeous visuals, and general hilarity of it all, it has to be up there with the best in the genre. It doesn’t quite pip Mario Kart 8, and with more level variation it could have been better, but Heave Ho is great!

Thank you so much for reading! It means a lot to us here at Nindie Nexus. Please comment to tell me what you think, and if you are looking for a similar experience on switch, check out . If you like what you’ve read, and want more ad-free content, then please consider donating via Ko-Fi and Patreon. Want to keep the conversation going? Follow us on Twitter and join our Discord. We also have our YouTube channel and even Twitch for streams so check them out too. We all really appreciate your support!