Pony Island (PC) (2016)

Overview: You've been trapped in an arcade machine and have been forced to play a game. However, you progressively stumble on and solve puzzles stored in the arcade machine's code to try and escape.

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20171122:
Continuing to play games which a friend of mine has played, I decided to play Pony Island.

The action portion of the game: jump over the fences.

While I initially thought the game would be a retro platformer, I was surprised to learn that it was more of a puzzle game with the occasional action element.

Steam Game Time: 107 minutes

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Chatting two mysterious persons.

Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Novel
+ Mysterious
+ Awesome

"I won't let you cheat at my game." (We'll see about that)

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Summary:
I can't pinpoint why I enjoyed this game, but it was satisfying to play.

Furthermore, I have trouble describing the game and I believe the descriptions I have given don't do the game justice.

In any case, if you enjoy point-and-click adventures, have an average amount of coordination (for jumping and pointing the mouse), and enjoy an element of mystery and suspense, then this game will almost surely deliver a positive experience.

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20220716:
After revisiting BattleBlock Theater, I decided to revisit Pony Island. Since the old save file wasn't available, I decided to

Gameplay Log:
Got stuck on a butterfly level. The button is on the bottom left and there's a gate in the center. I can't figure out the timing required to sync up the two butterflies.

Steam Game Time: 3.5 hours (total game time) / 1.8 hours (session game time)

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20220717:
Gameplay Log:
Today I mapped out the level on a spreadsheet (after changing the graphics to Windowed mode) and was able to solve it
Lol, that's a clever distraction by the game (Steam chat)
I think the game detected that I tabbed out
Beat the main game, only found 12 tickets out of 24 (4.4 hours total game time); beating the game unlocks an "Act Select" [according to a comment later below, this should be 8 out of 24 tickets]
Found a ticket in Credits of the "Intro" level; note that these credits are fake
I thought I would get something from having it go past level 99 (since there's no room). It just says "!INT OVERFLOW ERROR!"
Huh a ticket from the code mini-game. Did I really just miss this before?
I got a ticket for reaching 50 points on Pony Galaxy. I tried to push for 100 points but failed. Can't say if that's a possibility... Okay I tried again and got to 100 points without another ticket
Ah ha! Clicking on the icons and spelling TICKET gives a ticket. A beep sounds when it's correct. They have an icon of a ticket and their name is part of the word, e.g., "T.exe"
Using "1010011010" doesn't work with Baphomet
BAPHOMET - used to get third info ("when did I die?"); so replaying stores progress towards achievement;
Act II passwords: 2734, iamerror, ponies
Huh. I just pressed escape (during Act II) and it says 12 out of 24 tickets found. This means the 12 out of 24 above is only 8?
"where did I die?"
I read about how to get the ticket on Ticket Lake.
I also read the ticket spoilers for using the coin (the one obtained to left of Ticket Lake) and MissingNo.
Lol. Ticket at the menu of the friendly version of Pony Island. Not sure how I missed that one, since there often was something in the left Pony head.
There's a ticket in one of the pictures when prompted of the Premium Mode; actually, I saw a glimse of this solution when I was reading about tickets earlier
I read about not killing Jesus in order to get a ticket. The task itself is difficult.
"how did I get here?"; this got me "The Full Truths" achievement (so I think there are five truths)
Lol. For the Devil version of the game ("Devil Island"), I held on the left head and I figured maybe if I waited long enough something else would pop out. Eventually I noticed the screen was filling with red. Ticket.
Defeating the game again, the H0peles$0uL is aware that the player has replayed the game, again asking the player to delete the game, and closes it (actually the first time around I did delete the EXE file after the character requested it, but it didn't seem to do anything); I went on to read that there's an in-game incentive to get all 24 tickets; I'm at 19 out of 24 tickets
Read about two tickets in Act II: corrupted.exe and triangle.png. Actually I suspected somethign was up with the triangle, but I didn't connect it to the other piece...
Used "iamerror" and unlocked an achievement.
To save time, I began looking for the tickets I might not have. First is Pony Island in Lucifier's account: left head. I probably would have figured that one out eventually. Second is four hidden faces on H0peles$0uL's desktop. I probably would never have found that. The last ticket to find was in the Graphics Settings menu. The wiki says this one is only available at the beginning of the game, but I think it's also accessible from the Pause menu (when hitting the "Esc" button), but possibly only certain parts of the game in particular, any time after beating the game for the first time.
Thus with some help, 100% achievements! I think this was not a goal I was aiming for, but was easy enough to do as part of experiencing the game (i.e., defeating H0peles$0uL)

Steam Game Time: 8.0 hours (total game time) / 4.5 hours (session game time)

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Summary:
While I would consider Pony Island to primarily be a point-and-click adventure game, it does a great job of keeping itself fresh through its story and gameplay. In particular, there are some simple shooter gameplay elements, and one segment of the game that pays homage to text adventures. As for the story, it's mostly one of mystery blended with humor which revolves around poking fun at common video game design (e.g., grinding and DLC).

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Pony Island (PC) (2016)

Relevant Links:
Pony Island (Wikipedia.org)
Pony Island (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Pony Island (Steam Store Page)