The XBLIG catalog has its fill of junk, so it’s a pleasant surprise when one finds a decent puzzle-platformer like TransSubversion offering dozens of levels to play through for 240 Microsoft Points/$3. TransSubversion lets you take control of a spherical robot, exploring a variety of areas in order to find the exit to each one; it’s similar to the likes of Braid, The Lost Vikings, and Limbo. You’ll also have to master several different abilities along the way, giving this game some appreciable depth to it.

A multi-stage tutorial teaches you most of the basics quite well, showing off how your character can roll, do various special jumps, punch enemies and obstacles, shoot energy beams, and pick up special items ranging from keys to guns and even some unusual tools. It only takes a few minutes to learn how to play and the controls are laid out fairly well, so it should be accessible to most people interested in this genre. The mix of abilities, stage design, and special items keep things fun for a good while, more than making up for the almost pointless story that tries to drive TransSubversion forward.

Most levels can be broken down into a basic flow of finding the items you need to overcome a certain obstacle, while fighting a few enemies (who range from mere annoyances to genuinely dangerous), and finding the switches and keys necessary to get to the exit. While you’re free to explore the colorful environments, doing so means you will have to replay at least a few levels from each set; players have to finish a minimum number of maps fast enough to earn a silver or gold medal in order to unlock later stages. While this isn’t a major flaw, it’s still annoying; reaching the exit should be enough to progress in the game, and the search for TransSubversion’s hidden stages should have been enough to encourage a few repeat plays.

While you’re unlikely to find top-notch graphics and sound in a $3 game, TransSubversion does well enough in both aspects. Characters, enemies, and levels are all colorful and distinct, so it’s usually easy to keep track of what’s going on. Likewise the sound effects and music do their jobs just fine, giving the player something worth listening to while they explore each level. Whatever faults TransSubversion has, its presentation isn’t one of them.

Unfortunately, there are several minor flaws that bog the game down. The controls are well laid out, but extremely loose in their feel and they sometimes require a lot of precision in order to proceed. Several special items are either poorly explained, or not at all; there were several times where I would pick up an item and wonder "What does this do?", wasting valuable time experimenting with it in the hopes I would randomly learn how it works. These two factors become annoying when combined with your need to complete a certain number of stages very quickly in order to unlock the rest of them, though it’s not bad enough to ruin the fun by any means.

All told, TransSubversion is a decent puzzle-platformer at a fair price. Each stage is fairly short and can be completed in just a few minutes or less, but there are dozens of them and it’s fun to play around with such a fast, flexible character. 240 Microsoft Points/$3 will buy a genuinely competent and enjoyable indie game that, while it has some very real flaws, is still enjoyable and worth your time.