Loading ...
PUZZLE
Shifty Sam Review: A Scratch Game That Made Me Reconsider My Life Choices (In a Good Way?)
I don't review Scratch games. I have standards. But Shifty Sam—a four-day game jam entry with a mustache-sporting protagonist—somehow earned my begrudging respect. Mostly because it's free and I can't complain about the price.
Paul
February 16, 2026
7
Overall Score
"Look, I didn't want to like Shifty Sam."
First Impressions: Wait, This Was Made in WHAT?
I'm going to level with you: when I saw this was coded in Scratch—yes, the block-coding platform for teaching middle schoolers—I almost closed the tab. I've been reviewing games since before Unity was cool, and I have seen what amateur hour looks like. But here's Sam Swaggerton with his pixel-art shades and mustache, and the game actually loads without crashing my browser. The NES aesthetic isn't just slapped on with a shader; it's deliberate, constrained, authentic. The main menu music hit, and I thought, "Oh no, this might actually be competent." Four days of development during GMTK Game Jam 2025, and it placed top 20% overall, top 5% for audio. I'm suspicious of game jam darlings—they're usually held together with duct tape and prayer—but the post-jam build added polish and bug fixes, which means the developer actually cared beyond submission day. That's rarer than you'd think.
The Shifting Gimmick: Not as Original as You'd Hope, But Actually Fun
The core mechanic revolves around Sam navigating levels that shift and change—because the jam theme was 'Loop,' so everything cycles. You move, platforms appear and disappear, walls rotate, the usual puzzle-platformer song and dance we've been doing since Prince of Persia. What saves this from total derivative territory is the oscillate button (X or Spacebar), which lets you toggle between two states rapidly to skip waiting through cycles. It's a quality-of-life feature that shows actual game design thought, not just "let's make players wait and call it difficulty." The undo button (Z or U) is a godsend—I used it constantly, and it never punished me for experimenting. There's even a ruler toggle (Q) to help plan moves, which is the kind of thoughtful addition that makes me think someone actually playtested this instead of just throwing it online. Twelve main levels plus twelve challenge levels sounds modest, but the pacing is tight enough that I didn't get bored, which is damning with faint praise but also genuinely impressive.
Visuals and Audio: When Constraints Actually Work
Let's talk about why this placed top 5% for audio in a jam with hundreds of entries. The NES-inspired soundtrack isn't just chiptune noise; it's actual composition with melody and variation, the kind that loops without driving you insane. I left the music on. Do you understand how rare that is? Most indie games make me mute within thirty seconds. The pixel art adheres to legitimate NES palette restrictions—no modern gradient cheating, no particles that wouldn't render on a CRT. Sam's design is simple but readable, and the shifting level elements are visually distinct enough that I never mistook a wall for a platform. The post-jam build added a new win animation, which is the kind of polish that elevates a project from "game jam curiosity" to "actual small game." My only gripe: the visual feedback for some mechanics could be clearer, but I'm reaching for complaints at this point because I refuse to give a Scratch game unqualified praise. I have a reputation to maintain.
Difficulty Curve: Accessible Without Being Insulting
The twelve main levels ease you in without holding your hand like you're five years old, which I appreciate because I've been gaming since controllers had two buttons. By level six, I was actually thinking, using the ruler tool to plan moves, testing theories with the undo button. The challenge levels ramp up appropriately—they're not just "the same but faster," they remix mechanics in ways that require actual problem-solving. I'll admit I used the skip function (N key) exactly once, on a challenge level that demanded more patience than I possess at 11 PM on a Tuesday. The fact that skip exists without judgment is refreshing; some developers treat difficulty like a prison sentence you must serve. The controls are tight—WASD or arrows, no nonsense—and I never felt like I failed because of input lag or wonky physics. When I messed up, it was my fault, which is the mark of good design even if it wounded my pride.
What This Game Gets Right (And Why That Annoys Me)
Here's the thing that irritates me most about Shifty Sam: it's competent. It's a four-day Scratch project that respects my time, has actual quality-of-life features, looks and sounds cohesive, and doesn't crash or beg for money. It makes me question why so many "serious" indie developers on Steam charge fifteen dollars for half-baked Early Access garbage. The post-jam support shows MegaProgramGuy actually cares, which is both admirable and exhausting because now I have to acknowledge that passion and constraints can produce something worthwhile. The level design is clever without being pretentious. The mechanics are familiar but executed with enough thought that they don't feel lazy. It's free, it's complete, and it doesn't overstay its welcome. I hate that I can't tear this apart with the ferocity it deserves for being made in Scratch. Instead, I have to admit it's a legitimately good puzzle platformer that punches way above its weight class.
Rating Breakdown
Quality
7
Made in Scratch in four days and it doesn't fall apart—honestly, that's witchcraft, and the post-jam polish actually shows someone gave a damn.
Innovation
6
The oscillate mechanic to skip waiting is clever, but let's not pretend shifting mechanics haven't been done since Braid made us all feel smart in 2008.
Value
9
It's free, has 24 levels total, and doesn't ask for my email—in 2025, that's basically a unicorn wearing a top hat.
Gameplay
7
The core loop kept me playing longer than I'd admit at parties, and the undo button saved me from rage-quitting at least six times.
Audio/Visual
8
NES-inspired pixel art that actually respects the limitations instead of just slapping a CRT filter on lazy sprites, plus the soundtrack hit top 5% in the jam for good reason.
Replayability
5
Challenge levels exist, but once I've solved a puzzle, my brain deletes it like a bad memory—no procedural generation means one playthrough scratches the itch.
What Didn't Annoy Me
Actually free with no strings attached, which in 2025 feels like finding a twenty-dollar bill in an old jacket
NES aesthetic that's authentic and constrained, not just a lazy filter slapped on modern sprites
Quality-of-life features like undo, skip, oscillate, and ruler that show genuine playtesting and consideration
Soundtrack placed top 5% in the jam for good reason—it loops without making me want to throw my speakers out the window
Post-jam polish and bug fixes prove the developer didn't just submit and ghost, which is distressingly rare
Twenty-four total levels with a solid difficulty curve that doesn't insult your intelligence or waste your time
What Made Me Sigh
Made in Scratch, which I'm legally obligated to side-eye even though it works fine—my credibility is at stake here
Shifting mechanics aren't groundbreaking if you've played puzzle platformers anytime since 2008
Replayability is minimal once you've solved the puzzles—no randomization or alternate paths to justify a second run
Some visual feedback could be clearer, though I'm honestly reaching for complaints at this point
Challenge levels are tough but not different enough to feel like entirely new content
Final Verdict
Look, I didn't want to like Shifty Sam. I don't review Scratch games because I have standards and a carefully cultivated reputation for being impossible to please. But here we are: a four-day game jam project that's more polished, thoughtful, and respectful of my time than half the Steam releases I've suffered through this year. It's free, it works, it sounds great, and it doesn't try to be more than it is—a tight little puzzle platformer with a mustache-sporting protagonist and enough clever design choices to earn my begrudging respect. Is it revolutionary? No. Will it change your life? Absolutely not. But it's competent, complete, and actually fun, which makes it better than 80% of what gets uploaded to itch.io daily. Download it, play it in an hour or two, enjoy the soundtrack, and then move on with your life slightly more entertained than you were before. That's all any of us can ask for anymore.
Shifty Sam
Genre
Puzzle
Developer
MegaProgramGuy
Platform
HTML5
Release Date
Jan 1, 2025
Rating
7
/10
Tags
puzzle-platformer
pixel-art
retro
brain-teaser
scratch
game-jam
free
nes-inspired
Are you a developer and want to remove this review?