Biffo is a 2D platformer adventure game that blends action, indie, RPG, casual, and adventure elements into a single-player experience on PC. The story follows a seventy-year-old pensioner named Biffo who arrives in a jungle expecting a tropical holiday but instead faces a quest to visit twenty bars and complete a loyalty card for free pints for life. Armed with a bottle of ale, bottle caps, and a pint glass, he navigates hand-crafted levels filled with environmental hazards and enemies.
Gameplay
Core movement and combat revolve around a small set of tools that players combine creatively across levels. Swinging the bottle handles close-range threats like spiders and gnomes. Flicking bottle caps provides ranged options with three reusable projectiles. Shaking the pint builds fizz for a double jump that resets on landing. The bum-slide lets Biffo duck under obstacles and bowl through foes while maintaining momentum. These abilities interact with level design that includes crumbling bridges, swinging logs, runaway carts, falling conkers, icicles, geysers, blinking toadstools, snapping plants, gusts of wind, and slippery ice patches.
Progression rewards exploration. Cracked walls hide secret beer stashes. Each of the twenty levels across four worlds contains bottles of ale to collect, three golden bottles per level, and a three-star rating system based on reaching the bar, finding every beer, and locating all golden bottles. Worlds progress from Mossy Hollow through Amber Woods and Moonshade Thicket to Frostfern Forest, introducing new hazards that combine with earlier mechanics. Boss encounters at the end of each world pit Biffo against large gorillas with distinct attack patterns including punches, swats, and ground slams that players must learn and counter.
Game Modes
The main campaign delivers a linear sequence of twenty hand-crafted levels divided into four themed worlds. Completionists can pursue full collection of ale bottles and golden bottles while aiming for three stars on every stage. Hardcore mode removes checkpoints entirely, forcing a return to the first level upon any failure.
Pub Crawl serves as the roguelike mode available from the start. Runs chain together procedurally arranged floors drawn from the campaign's hand-made sections. Each floor ends at a different pub where players select one of eleven upgrades such as Pork Scratchings for an extra pint glass, Double Measure for an extra fizz jump, or Beer Goggles that draw beers toward the player. Pints carry forward between floors with no checkpoints, so a single failure ends the run. House rules including Last Orders, Lights Out, and Icy Reception alter individual floors for extra points. A gorilla appears every fifth floor with increasing aggression, and enemy variety grows deeper into runs. The Daily Special applies the same floors, rules, and upgrade choices to all players for leaderboard competition.
Controls and Customization
Full controller support includes Xbox and PlayStation button prompts alongside keyboard and mouse options. Every control can be rebound. Three difficulty settings and three save slots support different play styles. The game supports English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, and Russian languages.
Is It Worth Playing?
Biffo suits players who enjoy precise 2D platforming with light combat and exploration layered over a humorous premise. The campaign offers a contained experience with clear collectible and scoring goals, while Pub Crawl provides repeatable runs with upgrade choices and escalating challenges. Hardcore mode adds a stricter option for those seeking higher difficulty. Availability on PC with controller support and multiple languages broadens accessibility. The combination of fixed levels and roguelike elements gives variety without requiring multiplayer or ongoing seasons. Fans of quirky single-player platformers with roguelike side modes will find the mechanics and structure align directly with those preferences.
