In my quest to play every Indie 3D platformer in due time, I was waiting for a game like Poi to appear. Not in the sense that it meets every hope and dream I might have for this underappreciated genre, but how it perfectly represents how I imagine a colorful and imaginative 3D platformer on a strict budget would look. To say Poi would be rough around the edges would be to ignore how it's rough around in the middle too, but it's also a telling exercise in what a developer - when presented with a genre of game that would be difficult to produce on the small amount of cash and time Indie studios usually have - would prioritize given the resources available; what they felt was most important to get right compared to what is essentially fluff.

In that regard, Poi makes all the smartest choices. Graphically, it's somewhere between an N64 tech demo and the type of fake game a show like CSI would create for an episode (not that the wholesome adventuring of Poi would turn some impressionable teen into the sensational ripped-from-the-headlines slasher-of-the-week, but I hope you get where I'm going). It still, however, controls as fluidly as you'd hope - if a bit sluggish to get moving - and care was taken to recreate the techniques of Super Mario 64. Whereas a lot of Indie 3D platformers look to Rare's N64 oeuvre for their inspiration, typically with animal protagonists and silly noises in lieu of vocals, Poi is devoted to Mario's first 3D outing, with the requisite triple-jumps and quick U-turn backflips and mid-air dive leaps. It's enough of a foundation to ably carry the game's content, even if it falters a bit when it comes to enemy and trap collision.

Poi's also a dyed-in-the-wool collectathon; an adherent to the conceit that you have persistent worlds with multiple treasure-hunting objectives, occasionally changing itself in subtle ways to suit whichever goal the player specified going in. There are also notable "locations" to find, which might range from a towering structure you had to visit for other reasons to some small curious object off the beaten path, as well as costume changes, fossils that require a shovel to dig up, and well-hidden golden gears. Though the game only has four worlds - plus a smaller bonus world that feels like it was added in as DLC, given how its rules are different - with the typical settings of a forest, volcano, desert and cave, the game doesn't shy away from a range of bonus courses and objectives, each of which appears in the hub area of the game after certain milestones are met. Overall, Poi is a decently sized 7-8 hours as a result, and the level design isn't too repetitive though perhaps uninspired in spots.

Poi's certainly not a bad game, and it came at a time not too long ago where it reasonably fulfilled all the expectations one might have for a classic 3D platformer made with limited means. Unfortunately, it was soon outclassed by the likes of Yooka-Laylee and A Hat In Time, which - though they have ample problems of their own - had the benefit of much higher budgets and ambitions. Poi's ultimately the kind of labor of love homage made for those who love the genre as much as its creators do, and for that reason I find it hard to be too negative about it, but with the bar being raised so high in the meantime it feels a little insubstantial and unnecessary now. But hey, if the platformer genre needs anything, it's stepping stones.

Rating: 3 out of 5.