I don’t think there’s any video game genre quite as timeless as the platformer. They’ve been around for more than 30 years, and the basic ideas have been iterated on heavily in that time, but a simple, well-made, classically-styled platformer is still a wonderful thing. …Wait. This is sounding eerily …
Platformer
I don’t think there’s any video game genre quite as timeless as the platformer. They’ve been around for more than 30 years, and the basic ideas have been iterated on heavily in that time, but a simple, well-made, classically-styled platformer is still a wonderful thing. Pankapu, from Too Kind Studio, …
The first rule of making a platformer is: you need to have reliable controls. This is true of most game genres, of course, but for platformers it’s critical – when level design and puzzles are built around precise movements and strict timing, the controls need to allow the player to …
Dex is a game I wanted to like, and for the first hour or two, I really did like it. It’s a cyberpunk action RPG reminiscent of Deus Ex and Shadowrun, but that plays out as a sidescroller with some gorgeous 2D artwork. The combination of action RPG staples, light …
I went into Valley expecting a beautiful game of exploration and interactive fiction—a “walking simulator”, if you like. There are certainly elements of that, but at its heart, Valley is a first-person platformer, and a great one at that. It brings together jumping puzzles, free-running, Metroid-like upgrades, light combat, and …
The Kickstarter demo for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night couldn’t have come at a better time. The crowdfunding model has been brought into doubt this week with the critical panning of Mighty No. 9, another Kickstarter darling that promised a spiritual successor to Mega Man but, by almost all accounts, fell far short – not to mention the …
With its original 3DS release back in 2014 (well, early 2015 for New Zealand), Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse was the first Shantae game I’d played. I was somewhat familiar with the franchise just through general exposure and my fondness of some other WayForward games I’d played, but I didn’t …
I can’t remember the last time I played a game with as much commitment to a central idea as Life Goes On: Done to Death. This is a game with a devilishly simple core hook, but the way every single other aspect of the game ties into it makes this …
Despite what you’ve probably heard from a lot of folks on the Internet, and despite Sony apparently having all but given up on it, the PlayStation Vita is a really great handheld with an awesome library. With the likes of Danganronpa, Persona 4 Golden, Tearaway, OlliOlli, and Killzone: Mercenary (which …
We haven’t had a new IGAvania in six and a half years, but finally, Koji “IGA” Igarashi has come out of the shadows with a new project: a “A gothic, exploration-focused action platformer” called Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. His is probably not a household name, but as the person …