Garbanzo Quest

The dev seems to really want to draw comparisons to Celeste and Pizza Tower, platformers that blew up for both their charm and revolutionary platforming move-sets, Garbonzo Quest is very charming, but its a mix of platformer and bullet hell which those games don't take on for the most part.

3. hidden keys: like in SMW, you can grab a key in certain levels to unlock a different route. unlike in SMW, you don't have to complete the level in a different way. i have mixed feelings about this; i like it because it's efficient, but i feel like it reduces replayability. i'm not forced to go back through the level and play it a different way. there's a similar concern about badges -- they used to be scattered throughout levels -- but now you get badge-building materials and can build them in "Home." overall i like this design choice because i know what badges are available and i can build them even if i miss them in a level somewhere, but i feel like it might lower the uniqueness of finding a cool badge in a treasure chest somewhere. but i probably wouldn't have even mentioned this, though, if i hadn't seen it done the other way.

The game features a bright, quirky art style, which lends itself well to the game's absurdist and, at times, somewhat random comedy.

The soundtrack is surprisingly tonally varied, and the world map's interconnectivity and secrets are one of the best I've ever seen in a 2D platformer.

Also the fact it has coop really adds to the replayability.

Works perfectly on the Steam Deck (I play with a Xbox controller) BUT just FYI, as of June 2025, you have to manually set the version of proton to “experimental” to avoid a Proton bug where the game lags/stutters for a tiny amount of time every ~1.5 seconds or so.