Sigi - A Fart for Melusina (Nintendo Switch) Review

Walking the emerald-green grasslands of his beloved kingdom, the valiant knight gets entranced by a song that only a being of immense beauty could sing. The warrior approaches the nearby lake, and realises that this magic came to be through a beautiful pair of lungs, belonging to a stunning mermaid. The knight approaches her, his heart beating like an enormous drum… and then this worthless specimen of digital manliness breaks wind. Well, as they saying goes amongst poets, better out than in.

Yes, the smelly F-word in the title of Sigi - A Fart for Melusina is not an archaism that means something entirely different. The reason being - what else? - comedy! Does it succeed in that? Well, it would if it tried to. Unfortunately (or not), gas in not a major part of the experience. The protagonist lets one rip, and frightens the fishy girl of his dreams, and makes sure to repeat this act of elegance every time he reaches the end of a level, but, generally, don't expect a silly adventure full of purposely childish jokes - for all intents and purposes, this is nothing more than a platformer.

Sad as the minimum use of, err, aerials, is, the real sad part is the minimum effort that the developer has put in crafting this. This provides the bare essential of what an action-platformer needs: a hero that runs and jumps, enemies that move around, platforms that one is able to jump upon, and a couple of throwable weapons, for which there isn't anything special to say about. This lack of effort is even more evident in the 20 levels on offer, which honestly are almost identical.

So, the gameplay is generic, and the levels feel repetitive - can this get any worse? Sure it can! How? Why, by being so easy that it's offensive even to minors. The player can simply run through everything without ever giving a damn about the wellbeing of the hero, and although the boss fights can actually pose a little bit of challenge (and feel kind of unfair at times), most will enter these battles with plenty of lives to spare.

Leaving the generic, repetitive, and painfully easy gameplay aside, it's also important to note that this will be an extremely short, 30-minute trip. Sigi - A Fart for Melusina is basically a speed-running game, with the only reason to replay it being the "challenge" of doing things a bit faster, and with a larger percentage of collected treasure while at it - just don't expect any big rewards for doing so.

What blows the mind of your truly, is that this was actually made by competent hands! While there are a few design flaws here and there, the one who build the whole thing is obviously one who knows his way around programming efficiently, and although the retro audio-visuals are plain and forgettable, the artist responsible for those certainly evidently knows what he or she is doing. In conclusion… meh, and one expressed unironically.