Poi is a 2016 3D Platform Game by Polykid.
The story goes like this...
You're two kids on an adventure out to unravel the mysteries of the Milky Way Globe to become a master explorer.
That's it. Have fun!
Poi plays like many 3D platformers of yore with all of the trappings. You can choose between the boy or girl character as they explore many exotic locations and worlds, fending off comical enemies and complete unique platforming challenges.
A special version of the game, Poi: Explorer Edition, was released for the Nintendo Switch in 2017, with many added extra features like a digital artbook, extra costumes for your character, and support for motion controls.
Not related to the performance art of the same name, involving swinging glowing or flaming weights on ropes in patterns around the performer.
Poi contains examples of:
- Achievement System: There are several achievements to unlock, mostly for reaching 100% Completion.
- Action Girl: The girl avatar is this by default, as she has all the same abilities as her brother.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: There are costumes and hats hidden around the world that do nothing but make you look cool. The ultimate reward for collecting every explorer medallion is even a costume that makes you entirely golden.
- Blob Monster: The Berry Monsters charge after you on sight.
- Brother–Sister Team: The boy and girl adventurers are twin siblings.
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": The ice-dwelling bird family aren't penguins, they're "pin birds."
- Collision Damage: Running into enemies results in the characters losing a heart as well as some of their collected Coins.
- Conveniently an Orphan: The two player characters have no parents. Makes it all more easier to go exploring.
- Cool Ship: The protagonists travel far and wide on this. Its also the central hub world.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: You have infinite lives, and losing all of your health just returns you to a checkpoint.
- Death Mountain: Crystal Cavern takes places in a cavernous region with lots of cliffs, and various industrial and construction machines.
- Double Jump: You start the game with this. Very handy.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: There are creatures roaming about in the worlds with nothing better to do than get in your way and try to kill you.
- Fantastic Racism: A very mild example between the Orange and Green Ghoulies in Crystal Caves. As you might expect, once you get the final medallion there, the two groups make up and become friends.
- First-Person Snapshooter: You can buy a camera that allows you to take pictures of the world. You can take pictures of animals and characters to learn a little about them, but you can also take pictures of monsters to make a Monster Compendium to earn both a medallion and an achievement.
- The Goomba: Berry Monsters are some of the first enemies you encounter and are easy to beat.
- Goomba Stomp: Your main method of attack.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: The Explorer Medallions are the Power Stars/Jiggies/Shine Sprites/Golden Bananas main collectable of the game.
- Green Hill Zone: Cozy Canyon is the first stop on the adventure.
- Heart Container: One of these can be bought in the Hub shop. It increases your maximum health.
- Hearts Are Health: Your character starts out with three.
- Hub Level: The Sky, which gets expanded with new ships and islands as the game progresses.
- 100% Completion: To reach this, you'll need to get every Medallion, which also means you need to find every Fossil, Location, and Gold Gear. If you're counting achievements, you'll also need to collect all the costumes, find at least one hat, photograph every creature for your Monster Compendium... and beat the game in New Game Plus mode.
- Law of 100: Each level has a mysterious merchant who will trade you a medallion for 100 coins.
- Lethal Lava Land: Mount Magma.
- Level in Reverse: The New Game Plus mode mirrors most of the levels.
- Mini-Dungeon: The Snowland has a "Medallion Select" screen like the full levels, but is divided into two halves that only have three Medallions each. In addition, each of those halves has its own 150-Coin Medallion.
- Monster Compendium: You can take pictures of monsters to make a list of them that gets added to your Book.
- Multi-Mook Melee: The Mole-iseum places your character in a room of enemies. The difficulty level affects the lineup of enemies.
- New Game Plus: You unlock one after beating the game. In addition to giving you only one health point, it mirrors most of the stages.
- No Plot? No Problem!: You're an aspiring explorer! There's a world. Go explore it!
- Non-Lethal Bottomless Pits: Truly Non-lethal, as they don't cost anything.
- One-Gender Race: The Rooty Boys all appear to be male, and the Cactus Ladies all seem to be female. Maybe they're the same species?
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: In New Game Plus, you only get one health.
- Plant Person: The Rooty Boys and Cactus Ladies are both types of plant people. The Rooty Boys are generic "plants," but the Cactus Ladies are cactuses as their name implies.
- Pass Through the Rings: One of the minigames challenges you to fly through rings to win Medallions.
- Rule of Fun: What the game amounts to. The two protagonists want to see the world because it's fun.
- Shifting Sand Land: Called Sinking Sands.
- Shout-Out: Tons. Where to start?
- The Rooty Boys bear a resemblance to the Deku Scrubs from the The Legend of Zelda series.
- Some of the hats you can collect include a turtle shell, a tanuki hat and tail, a pointy green hat, and a rabbit hood.
- The achievement for collecting a hat is named "Hat Kid."
- Bouncy tightropes like those in Super Mario Sunshine are common in the levels.
- One of the secret areas is a round planet. In addition, you can fly there if you perform a triple jump.
- The merchant who lets you trade coins for medallions is a raccoon, similar to the tanuki shopkeepers who trade blue coins for Shine Sprites in Super Mario Sunshine.
- The robots in the final area closely resemble those in Castle in the Sky.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The Snowland.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Berry Monsters love jam, and it's apparently why they're, well, berry-pink.
- To Be a Master: Your mission is to become a master explorer.
- Verbal Tic: The game abounds with them!
- The Master Explorer: "Heh hoo!"
- Rooty Boys: "Tweedle dee"
- Lavasaurus Rexes: "Aruu"
- Cactus Ladies: "Hon"
- Pin Birds: "Chirp"
- Voice Grunting: The various NPCs each make a small noise when they speak, such as the Cannoneer going "Hey..." or the Ghoulies doing a ghostly giggle.
