Well, I decided to buy the DLC after all. Let’s see how that went for me:

The best way to describe this DLC is “more of the same, but not as well designed.” It’s difficulty is around world 2 from the main game.

This DLC contains:

• 2 3D levels
• 1 2D level
• 6 statue-sliding segments
• 1 exclusive boss (it even has its own battle theme and victory theme)

Both of the 3D levels are more nonlinear than what the main game usually has. Unfortunately, this also means that you can’t really rely on which letters you’ve collected to know where the others might be, as you’ll almost certainly find them out of order (the closest equivalent this has to the main game is one level where two letters were swapped but were fairly close by each other). The first level has a relatively lengthy moving platfoms segment with slowly-moving platforms to boot, but what’s worse is the platforms come by in small groups, so if you jump off and take too long to complete the objective on the island, you have to wait quite a bit for the next set of platforms to come along. The second level is another maze, similar to the one in the main game (although this one doesn’t have cheap hits, so it’s better designed on that front). However, it’s not hard to find places to perform sequence breaks, as you can easily get over the walls by jumping on tables or the fire spawners. Also, be sure to collect all the letters before finishing the main objective since completing the main objective teleports you back to the beginning (where the main clover spawns).

The 2D level has a unique gimmick where you’re being shot at from a ship in the background, and you can use said projectiles to destroy certain objects in the level. It’s pretty fun, and it even has a slightly more clever way of hiding the hidden clover than the main game does.

The statue-sliding segments were pretty disappointing since their difficulty isn’t quite on the level of the main game’s world 3 puzzles. You’ll easily solve most of them in a few seconds, though there are a couple decent ones at the end.

The boss is okay. The floor is segmented into a grid and certain tiles become harmful every so often, so you have to go over to the safe areas. After a few seconds, enemies will spawn or the boss comes down and fires lasers. Strangely, the lasers don’t have drop shadows, making it hard to judge where its safe to land when you have to deal with both the lasers and the harmful tiles. Actually, now that I think about it, do any of the lasers in this game have drop shadows?

Overall, this DLC is okay. If you liked the game and didn’t think the final world was too easy, you’ll enjoy this. Onto the next one:

This one is advertised as being “challenging,” but really, it isn’t much more difficult than world 4 (which, admittedly, is the final world in the main game, but still). This world has a bunch of tongue-in-cheek references to 1980’s pop culture, but there are some more original jokes, like the robot telling you to muscle through not being able to breathe. However, the funniest part of the DLC is that it refers to the ball-rolling mini-games as “puzzles.” Ha ha, no. Just because you make movement physics-based doesn’t mean your level is suddenly a puzzle; it’s just a physics-based obstacle course. You don’t see anyone call Super Monkey Ball or Marble Madness puzzle games, do you?

Actually, given what other titles have been lumped into the “puzzle” category, that wouldn’t surprise me (it really seems like, for most people, “puzzle” just means “this doesn’t fit into conventional genres even if it’s obviously skill/reaction-based instead of thought-based”).

Anyway, this DLC contains:

• 6 ball-rolling obstacle courses
• 1 auto-scrolling level
• 1 2D level
• 5 3D levels
• 2 remixed bosses from the main game
• 1 arena where you fight a few waves of enemies while avoiding environmental hazards

Note: the levels don’t have the 5-letter clovers or 300-coin clovers. In fact, none of the above have clovers: you get a medal upon normal completion, and there’s a not-so-hidden hot dog (or hot dog bucket) in each that you have to hit if you want to unlock the final costume. Also, all stages in this DLC are unlocked at once (as opposed to the rest of the game where you have to play stages sequentially).

I got the ball-rolling stages out of the way first since I wasn’t too big a fan of them anyway. The overworld’s design might make you think a couple of them will be devoted to statue-sliding stages (i.e. this game’s actual puzzle segments), but no; they’re all ball-rolling stages. The main thing these stages do differently from their main-game counterparts is they add moving barrels, i.e. moving platforms, i.e. waiting. You don’t even have to worry about being physics’d off of them since they basically scoop you up. To be fair, there are a couple of these stages where you play on a tilted board (and even one where you have to hit switches to tilt it the other way), and I had a bit of fun with these stages.

Speaking of being different from main-game counterparts, the developers managed to make the auto-scrolling level interesting and fun. Not only are there a bit more hazards than normal, but they added tilted springs that reverse the direction you’re moving, which opens the door to some more complex level design. I’m almost disappointed that there’s only one auto-scroller here.

The 2D level is based on climbing ladders. Sometimes, there are instant-kill spikes moving along the ladders, and sometimes, the ladders themselves are moving (or even rotating!), so if you miss the ladder, you have to wait a surprisingly long time for it to come back (and you have to abandon a ladder mid-traversal if you want the level’s hot dog). Other than the waiting, this level is pretty fun.

Each of the 3D levels have a gimmick: one is based on jumping across platforms before they sink; one has a bunch of conveyor belts and rotating platforms; one rotates certain platforms when you hit certain springs; one requires you to dig through most of the level, sending you back to a checkpoint if you mess up; and one requires you to follow a ghost (in this game, a ghost’s lantern makes certain platforms appear). Most of the gimmicks don’t do much to separate them from levels in the main game (two are just variations on time limits), but they’re still pretty fun. Also, the constant-digging level is pretty unique, made more challenging since you can’t stop moving while underground, but if you get sent back to a checkpoint by hitting a mine (making it explode in the process), the mine isn’t there anymore when you try again. That should tell you quite a bit about this DLC’s “”"”challenge.”””” There is one issue with these levels: it isn’t very intuitive that you can burrow into the neon cubes, so if you play the ghost level before the digging level, you’ll be very confused. Heck, even if you play the digging level first, you’ll still probably be a little confused. Some sparkling mounds like the ones scattered throughout the main game would’ve helped since the ring texture isn’t a clear indicator.

The recycled bosses were the part I was most worried about when deciding whether or not I should buy the DLC. After all, most games that recycle bosses do so in a very copy-and-paste manner. Honestly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it turned out that the way the devs made the bosses more challenging was by removing the hearts you get between phases. Luckily, the devs actually tweaked the boss AI (and even the stage design in one case), adding more projectiles and changing the patterns they fire. It’s more than can be said for certain post-game stages in Super Mario Odyssey.

The arena is also pretty well designed. It starts off as just boring enemies in a flat arena, but the second segment has the floor tiles come up and shoot fireballs, with later phases shooting lasers and spinning around or even flipping over to reveal spikes. My only issue with this stage is the fact that the rock golems in the final segment spawn a giant fireball when they die, and since your only attack is short ranged, it isn’t uncommon to be hit by said fireball right when a golem dies (I actually died from the fireball spawned by the very last golem in the stage, which was annoying).

Overall, this DLC is pretty good. If you enjoyed the main game at all, I recommend checking out this DLC as well.

Also, if you don’t have the game and are a fan of platformers, I highly recommend it. Seriously, don’t write this game off just because it isn’t on Steam or because it’s short or because of its minor depth-perception issues; it’s a very polished experience.