What I like about the Shift Legacy Collection is that it showcases the evolution of a game mechanic. It’s like an electronic petri dish. You begin with the basic mechanic – shifting the perspective of the world in this case – and leave it for a while. It begins to spread across the dish, showing different behaviour as it goes, before the mechanic is now fully realised and you’re flipping your perspective every which way. It’s all rather enjoyable, both on a technical level and the fact that it’s just plain fun.
I guess it’s reached the final stage of evolution now, because all four Shift games have appeared on Steam. If the name and screenshots below look familiar, then you probably frequented Armor Games back in the day. Shift was a series of Flash-based light puzzle-platformers, which the Shift Legacy Collection has packaged together with some quality of life improvements and collections of fanmade levels. It checks the nostalgia box, but how does it hold up?
Changing Perspective
Let’s start at the beginning. Shift is a puzzle-platformer originally published in ’08. On the surface, it’s a standard platformer – collect keys and avoid spikes. The big difference is that at any time you can press shift and flip on to the other side of the platform you’re on. So black becomes empty space and white becomes the ground. You need to flip-flop your way to the keys, and then the exit door. The first game never really pushes it – being rather short – but it starts to get creative with the idea. It also has an awful soundtrack, but no matter.
Shift 2 picks things up a bit. Now there are moments where our perspective shifts sideways. It complicates things a smidge, especially when you try and predict which way things are going to spin. It’s still a little on the easy side, but Shift 2 brings in other elements. There’s a sense of humour, for one. It’s mostly funny, especially if you grew up with this era of games. It owes a lot to Portal, I think, but I did laugh a couple of times. Though the level that simulates lag doesn’t land as well these days. Shift 2 lays a good foundation, though, which the rest of the Shift Legacy Collection builds on.
Puzzles On All Sides
Shift 3 is where it starts to push the boundaries. Keys now open doors in other rooms, requiring backtracking and rethinking rooms to get to other doors. I really like the shifting mechanic, in part because it shifts gravity with it. So if you need to get to the top of a tall section, you can shift inside it and then drop down. Once you flip back, you’re at the top. It’s an extremely simple idea that can change otherwise straight-forward levels into something more complicated. Shift 3‘s more open structure allows that to come into focus more, as you’re not just puzzling towards one simple goal. It also starts to bring in a story, which is nice to see.
Shift 4 is where it all comes together. The puzzles are a lot tougher, everything is a lot more open and we have a final evolution: multiple characters. Keeping track of where three people are and, crucially, what surface they’re attached to is great. As long as you’ve got a strong stomach for all the spinning of the perspective. Story gets a bit more focus, too. When Shift 4, and the Shift Legacy Collection as a whole, makes the most of its puzzle mechanics, it’s golden. The platforming behind it is less great, though. It’s not terrible, just a little imprecise. There are a couple of levels that fall back on basic spike-based platforming, and suffer because of it.
Shift Legacy Collection – A Charming Compilation
The remaining levels in the Shift Legacy Collection are mostly fanmade. I love that it’s embracing the community. The fanmade levels take the concept in different ways too. One that forces you to ignore the perspective switching points was good; I had to fight against my every instinct. There’s a decent amount of packs to go through too, and it stops the collection from feeling redundant. You could seek out each game and individual level codes online, or pay for the convenience. I do find it a little strange that fanmade levels are included without a level editor. That would seem a no brainer to me, and give the series an extension of its shelf life.
Still, what we have here is a collection made with love. All four Shift games are worth playing through, just to experience the evolution of a fun mechanic. From basic flipping, to flying all over the screen while on-screen text makes fun of me. It probably won’t take you long to blaze through it – I got through it in about four hours – but it’s also not that expensive. If you fancy an afternoon of light puzzle-platforming – or just want to stroll down nostalgia lane – then give the Shift Legacy Collection a whirl.
