Sisao Game Review

Sisao Game Background

Sisao is a tandem puzzle platformer game where players control a thirsty person in the desert. The name of the game is Oasis spelled backwards.

Alessandro Pezzetti’s Havana24 developed this game as a submission to Gamedev.js Jam 2001.

How to Play Sisao

Move left by pressing the A key or the left arrow key.

Move right by pressing the D key or the right arrow key.

Jump by pressing the spacebar.

Basic Gameplay Advice

This game has 10 stages which are unlocked sequentially.

Make it safely to the flags above and below the waterline to beat each stage. You have to align (or misalign) the characters so that both are standing in front of their respective red flagpoles at the same time. The white and black checkered ground shows the range you must have part of the character’s body in to activate the flag.

The characters die if either of them run into a cactus or pass through the waterline. If either character perishes you lose the stage and restart it.

Run into red switches to activate them, destroying red blocks.

When you push wooden crates they slow you down. Wooden crates that are pushed off platform float on the waterline, allowing you to use them as platforms from above and below.

Advanced Playing Tips & Strategy

Each time you push wood crates there is starting friction, so if you want to intentionally misalign characters by a lot you can tap, tap, tap through a series of small moves. If you want the characters to remain more tightly aligned, you are better off pushing the crate in one big move.

Sometimes you have to push the crate the opposite direction you want to move it so that you can do a larger move in the direction you need to push it.

You may need to avoid activating a switch until after you have put a wood crate in place to land on.

If you need to be widely misaligned you can have one character move horizontally while the other is stopped by the edge of a platform, or time your jump so one makes it across while the other is stuck just short of making it high enough to keep moving horizontally.

Educational Aspects

This game can help players focus on tracking the responses of multiple things moving at once and improve hand eye coordination.

Player Age Recommendations

At first glance this game seems quite easy, but the need to precisely align the characters at flags that are in different horizontal positions makes this game quite challenging for younger children. This game is probably best for middle school and above. Even most adults will find the final stage difficult.