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Sigi – A Fart for Melusina (PS4) Review

Have you ever thought to yourself what it would be like if Sir Arthur, from Ghouls ‘n Goblins, became overweight and rather flatulent before setting out on a mission of love? If you have, then Sigi – A Fart for Melusina is for you! This pixel-art retro-throwback title, from Pixel.lu and Sometimes You, may seem a little childish or silly if you were to judge it by its title alone – however, you know me, I won’t judge anything until I’ve actually played it and can comprise a full opinion of the title.

As such, I’m rather glad I checkout out this fun farty fantasy – or should that be fart-asy?

Sigi - A Fart for Melusina 1

Ahhh, the love of Sigi’s life…

Move over Sir Arthur, Knight Sigi is here to save the day this time, an overweight knight who seems to have a problem with keeping in his gas. I guess it’s better out than in, right?! One day, whilst out on a pleasant stroll across the land, he happens to come upon a beautiful mermaid with a massive pair of… lungs. As he builds up the courage to walk over to her and introduce himself, he unwillingly lets out a bottom burp and scares the sexy scaly seductress away!

After giving chase after the one he has hopelessly fallen in love with, he discovers Melusina the mermaid has been captured by a horde of evil beings! It really isn’t Sigi’s day, is it?! So, he must venture through numerous levels as he finds all the secret rooms, kill all the enemies and be Melusina’s knight in shining armour before she is turned into Fish Fingers! The main game itself will only take you around 30-40 minutes to complete your first time and there is a trophy for completing it in under 30 – this is a game you can play through in one sitting and strives for you to get better and faster each time!

Sigi - A Fart for Melusina 2

It’s actually quite satisfying as you slice the heads off the zombies.

Gameplay:
The gameplay is surprisingly solid – The controls aren’t floaty or hard to utilise, it all works perfectly and I actually found this game really fun to play through. You only have two action buttons, Cross jumps and either Circle or Square attacks with the weapon you pick up, be it a spear, mace or otherwise. As you play through the game, you’ll also notice a lot of similarities to games of the past, games such as the aforementioned Ghouls ‘n Goblins, Super Mario Bros and even a bit of Castlevania. These similarities come in the form of gameplay mechanics – you’ll be collecting coins, killing bats and other horrific creatures, finding secrets, and taking down giant bosses as you search for the missing mermaid.

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As I always advise, don’t be put off by the name or subject matter. Sure, Sigi farts at the end of each level as he ‘toots’ in time with the tune of the theme but that doesn’t distract from the actual level design and gameplay. The levels are fun to play through, each one housing a secret room and/or the four letters of your name to collect in order to unlock more lives and secret areas. After the first few levels, I was hooked. At that point I didn’t know the game was really short, I just wanted to carry on playing until I got to the end regardless of how long it would take me (30.5 minutes). I imagine anyone else would be the same as well – it’s hard to put down a game that has such fast-paced action and constantly keeps you busy as it throws more and more enemies at you in the later stages.

Sigi - A Fart for Melusina 3

You need to complete it with 100% in less than 30 minutes! Time to try again…

Trophy hunters:
For all the trophy hunters out there who like games where you feel like you accomplished something, I’d say pick up Sigi – A Fart for Melusina and, without a guide, aim to get 100% as one of the trophies may take a while to obtain. This trophy requires you to find 100% of all the secrets in one run AND complete it in under 30 minutes. That means you have to not only find everything, but also finish it really fast – I have seen that people have done this in around 22-25 minutes, but still – it’s quite an achievement if you manage it! Especially if you don’t use a guide telling you where everything is.

If you do opt to play it without a guide, at the end of the game, you can warp to any level and replay them at your leisure. This will allow you to find the secrets yourself in preparation for your speedrun attempt. I’ve not managed to obtain this trophy yet, but I will one day!

You also have the chance to get three platinums. The PS4 version in NA and EU and the PS Vita version in your designated region. The Vita version is £1 less than the PS4 version as well, at £3.99 over £4.99 – but no Cross-buy.

Sigi - A Fart for Melusina 4

I love the humour, even if it’s on the same level as me!

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Personal Opinion:
If you can look past the title and the questionable design choice with having the guy flatulent… actually, no. Don’t look past it because it was really funny! I may be childish or immature, but the comedy within Sigi – A Fart for Melusina was actually quite fun and lighthearted. You get small one-liners popping up at the bottom of the screen when you die, during boss battles and sometimes just randomly – all of which are there to make light of what’s going on and offer a bit of comedy into the mix. If you get offended or think the same shouldn’t be doing that, maybe don’t play it? This combined with the solid gameplay and the push to speedrun after you’ve become accustomed to all the levels really makes Sigi – A Fart for Melusina a lot of fun to play and an overall enjoyable experience.

Technical:
Graphically, Sigi – A Fart for Melusina is your standard basic pixel-art style. Personally, I feel it would look better on the PS Vita or Nintendo Switch (I only played the PS4 version), purely because the pixel-art it uses is quite blocky. Don’t get me wrong, it looks fine on a big screen TV, it’s just that this kind of pixel style is usually better on smaller screens. Either way, the character models are funny and well designed but the environments aren’t as varied as I would have hoped for. In some levels, the water is red to symbolise lava and in others, the sky may be a dark purple for night time. Other than that, the environments play out pretty much the same. If you were a dog playing the game (who can only see in black and white) then two things, 1. you wouldn’t really notice any difference at all between the levels and 2. Why aren’t you famous?! A dog playing video games and being consciously aware of what it’s doing is amazing!!

Audio-wise, Sigi – A Fart for Melusina is let down a little I’m afraid. The music isn’t bad, with its chiptune 8/16bit throwback style and feel but it lacks longevity. You hear the same short samples repeated throughout. It’s not a big issue but it is one you’ll pick up on fairly soon after playing. The sound effects all fit into this style perfectly as well, but they do come off a little ‘too old school’, with some sound effects sounding like they came from the Atari 2600 rather than the NES/SNES

Official Trailer:

Final Conclusion:
Sigi – A Fart for Melusina is a fun pixel-art style indie platformer with an emphasis on speedrunning. The controls are solid and the game contains a lot of childish fart-joke level of humour. What’s not to like! The game itself may not take you longer than around 30 minutes to complete on your first go. However, if you’re trying to get all trophies then expect that time to increase as you learn each of the 16 levels layouts (for secrets) and master taking down the bosses in as little time as possible. 

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Sigi – A Fart for Melusina is a charming game that doesn’t outstay it’s welcome – I would have liked a longer experience, but for the price, I feel it’s a great little pick-up-and-play distraction title!

A copy of the game was kindly provided for review purposes

Sigi - A Fart for Melusina

£4.99 + £3.99
7.5

Final Score

7.5/10

The Good:

  • Solid controls with work perfectly
  • Amusing one-liners and humorous situations
  • Great for short bursts as it's only a 30min adventure
  • Nice art style which scales well on big TVs (although hand-held will probably be better)

The Bad:

  • The music does repeat quite often, would have liked a longer music sample
  • The game itself is short, clocking in at around 30 minutes to complete. If you're only interested in the platinum then you'll be done in around an hour
  • Not much challenge if you start from the beginning as you amass plenty of lives
  • Some may find the whole concept a bit off putting in regards to it's humour (I didn't though)
  • The levels are pretty much the same, bar a few palette swaps
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