Popucom was a game I have been paying attention to for the last year. I was even able to get some time to play a demo for Steam Next fest last year. It has such a colorful and interesting art design, with a lot of unique characters based on the look of the characters.
Game Name: Popucom
Platform(s): PC (Reviewed)
Developer(s): Hypergryph
Publisher(s): Gryphline
Release Date: June 1st, 2025
Price: $19.99
In Popucom, you are trying to protect the planet from the moon, which is throwing down more and more entities and covering the planet in darkness. You and a friend have to solve some color-coded puzzles to unlock more areas and find bots to create a missile that will destroy the moon.
The Good
There are a lot of engaging moments when it comes to the puzzles in Popucom. Each puzzle is focused on a color-coded solution. Each player has two different colors they control. If you have an enemy who is colored purple, it requires the player who can turn purple to defeat them with their orb blaster. Blobs can be defeated by combining that blob with three blobs of the same color to disappear.
After you do the first four levels in Popucom, you will get four gadgets that help you solve most of the puzzles you will be confronted with. You will need to partner up with your friend to cover each other’s bases. That can be grabbing and throwing items to help your friend teleport to where they need to be, or covering each other’s backs with your shield so they can get you through a color of goo. There are a lot of fun and creative puzzles that will need to be solved to progress.
Popucom is a well-optimized game. I was at a locked 60 FPS the whole time. It also had incredible netcode that had my friend in the game room with no issue. It was easy to create a room and invite a friend to join that room. I was playing on a beefy setup featuring an NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super graphics card and an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU.
The boss encounters can be a lot to focus on, but Popucom, using the color-coded bubbles, makes it simple to focus on what matters in a fight. You will only have to focus on the two colors that your character can shift to, and aim at that specific color to dish out damage to the boss. If you evaporate the bubbles attached to the boss, it also reduces the reach they have with their limbs and attacks. Focusing on the joints makes it a fight that can be fought wisely.
As you progress in Popucom, you will unlock arcade games. These arcade games are actually rather entertaining. They are a microcosm of the main game, too. If you start to get frustrated at getting stuck on a puzzle, you can unwind with the arcade games.
The Bad
There are collectibles on each level of Popucom. This is par for the course for a puzzle platformer, but it is easy to get stuck after the collectible because moving forward on a level can remove any chance to get back to an earlier section of a level. You have to restart either the whole level or find a section that lets you teleport to find the collectible sticker you missed. There were times that we wanted to see an optional puzzle from a different perspective, so we would get further in the level to look down, and then we couldn’t get back because the level isn’t designed for you to go backward only forward.
Controls in Popucom are pretty straightforward; you can do your color orb shot, your gadgets, and jumping. It feels like certain boss fights want you to be able to dodge or roll out of the way of attacks, but since you can’t do that, you just have to take the hit and lose your health. It is frustrating to feel like you can do a movement ability, but you can’t, and you just have to rely on jumping at the right time. Jumping out of the way feels impossible, though, when the boss is jumping on top of you.
The cosmetic shop in Popucom has a good chunk of unlockable outfits, hair, and shoes. The currency, however, is divided between the currency you can get from playing the campaign or from playing the party mode. I don’t like having to be forced into a certain game mode to earn cosmetics, but I suppose it is meant to get you to play both modes.
The Verdict
Overall, I enjoyed my playtime with Popucom. If you want a team shooter puzzler platformer with a friend to figure out color-coded puzzles, then this is the game for you. It does have its problems with certain puzzles gating you from going back for collectibles, especially when you figure out you missed one, but the levels aren’t long enough to be too annoying to go back for. It is also pretty easy to get on and play and then get off. Short levels mean you can take your time. It also has a good price at $19.99.
Popucom will release on June 1st, 2025, for PC (Steam).
Review Disclosure Statement: Popucom was provided to us by Gryphline for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.
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Summary
Popucom is an entertaining Co-op Puzzle Platformer that has a very simple and charming aesthetic. It may not be a perfect entry into the genre, but it is a fun one!
Pros
- Colorful and charming visuals
- Color-coded puzzles make it pretty simple
- A range of gadgets creates satisfying solutions to puzzles.
Cons
- No dodge or roll
- Puzzles can keep you moving forward, no backtracking
- Party mode exclusive currency
