OCO is a beautiful and chill puzzle platformer that just hit the Steam store on August 11. You may be familiar with OCO if you’ve played it on iOS or Android, where it was released back in 2019, but now you can play it on your computer! Let’s get in to it:

What is OCO?

At first sight OCO may seem like a simple game with it’s one screen circular puzzle that involves only one click at a time to solve a puzzle, but it’s much more than what meets the eye. During each level of OCO, you are a square white “bit” as they call it, dropped into a spinning circular puzzle where you must collect yellow bits on screen to complete the puzzle. The circle puzzle will spin on its own, while you can click or press the space bar to jump to get to a higher platform, and to change directions you simply bump into a wall.

Ultimately, collecting yellow bits becomes your main objective in this game. In addition to collecting these bits throughout your levels, you can collect them by using the minimum number of jumps in a level which will award you 100 bits, and you can also collect 100 bits by completing a level in the minimum amount of time. You do not need to do either to move on to the next level though, they’re just a bonus. Bits can also be used to unlock hints in each level if you’re stuck. I haven’t run into a situation where I’ve used that option, but it’s nice to know that I have it there.

Each area has a set number of levels, and once you collect enough bits you can unlock the next world of levels, which will present new challenges in the levels such as speed tracks, trampolines, or sudden death blocks. This keeps the game fresh and engaging.

Visuals and Music

This puzzle platformer has chill and relaxing music that makes you bob your head throughout the level, and it goes extremely well with the aesthetic. I highly recommend playing this game with your headphones in to really get engrossed with the game. As your white bit speeds and makes jumps through the puzzle, you’ll make a pattern in your wake which creates a cool design. I’ve found myself at times just letting my bit run through a level creating patterns while listening to the music.

Extra Content

OCO has more to offer on top of the main campaign. One of my favorite game modes is creating a level. This mode starts you out with an empty grid, which you fill in to create your own puzzle, and place your bits. For each world you unlock in the main campaign, you can use those added contraptions in the create mode, so if you’re big into creating, you’ll have more incentive to complete the main campaign to allow creative freedom in the create mode. Once you’re finished creating a level you can upload for the world to play.

Which leads us to the next feature, “Explore.” In this mode, you can play uploaded levels from other creators, but what separates OCO from other games that have user created levels is the leaderboards, and the different ways they sort the levels to be discovered. Once you’re in the explore mode, you can choose a level from the following menus: New, Promoted, New Pro (High Quality Creators), Trending, Top Levels this Month (Easy, Medium, Hard, Extreme), Top 20 Creators, and Creators that you’re following. All of these options really allow for you to play high quality levels online, which heightens the experience.

Next up is Olympus Mode. This mode takes the very best levels created by users, and has players compete against each other to climb the leaderboards. Players will compete weekly in a speedrun event or an endurance event. Speedruns will have the players compete in six levels as fast as possible, whereas endurance has players compete nine levels without dying. The goal is to be #1 on the leaderboard, and become God of Olympus, where only one player at a time can hold this title. You must complete stages 1-7 in the main campaign to compete in Olympus mode.

Final Thoughts

OCO is an excellent puzzle platformer with so much to offer. I was really blown away with how in depth the online functions were, while also really enjoying the aesthetic and gameplay of the main campaign. I’d highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys a good puzzle game, or just wants to listen to a good beat while gaming. I really found myself thinking throughout this entire experience, whether it was trying to create an intricate and unique level, or how to perfectly beat a level for those 100 yellow bits.

Verdict: 4/5

OCO can really challenge a gamer with its intuitive puzzles, bring people back with their online function, and really impress with the music. It’s available on Steam, iOS, and Android.

Will you be picking up OCO? Let us know in the comments section, or on our Discord!