Salt & Sanctuary is an interesting 2D Souls-like with an artstyle and overall control feeling that really turned me off. It’s a bit of a bummer, because it also felt like a metroidvania in some capacity and the skill tree/item systems were really speaking out to me. Ultimately it was a bit too “floaty” and unprecise, while at the same time requiring too much precision, for me to stick with.
Hob is a cute little zelda-like adventure game with a minimalist UI, no dialogue and a clean artstyle. Controlling the titular Hob, you solve puzzles by using your mechanical arm, fight enemies and explore the world. I really wanted to give it a shot, but after barely a few hours in, I was completely stuck and decided to give it up after some more mindless revisit of all the locations I already had access to.
The Messenger is pretty neat, with great chiptuney music, impressive pixel art and tight gameplay, it’s a Ninja Gaiden-esque love letter that evolves into an interesting dual-world metroidvania after you think the game might be over. I was turned off by the writing of the game, which kinda clashed with the overall themes, but still had a pretty good time with it!
Owlboy is a beautiful, inventive and unique 2D platformer full of heart where you play an owl against incredible odds and danger, flying around, carrying other characters and using their weapons while dodging dangers, fighting bosses, collecting coins and participating into different gameplay sequences that keep you on your toes. For all its beauty and care, I didn’t have that great of a time with Owlboy. I felt like the controls were a bit confusing and made combat something that could go downhill very fast.
Rise & Shine is a puzzle platformer with a tone issue and interesting but poorly framed mechanics. Playing a young boy named Rise, you go through an invasion by evil video game grunts by wielding the mythical gun Shine, shooting your way through difficult enemies, massive bosses and somewhat ill-conceived puzzle sections. I really couldn’t get into it and dropped the game fairly quickly, which is a shame, because there are good ideas in there!
Celeste is an amazing platformer that is both very difficult and also very forgiving, boasting an amazing assist mode that allows players to make the game easier for themselves if it is too tough. Set on a mountain comprised of a few different locales, you jump and air-dash around various mechanics, collecting strawberries and finding secrets that unlock much harder levels. I had a great time going through the campaign, and might try to clear up everything else that I missed. If you haven’t played Celeste, I recommend it wholeheartedly.
I didn’t have that great of a time with the original Yooka-Laylee; A somewhat uninspired Banjo-Kazooie spiritual successor that failed to grab me. This sequel ditches 3D platforming for Donkey Kong-adjacent 2D adventures with a few really neat twists. I really had a good time with The Impossible Lair, even if the game has some weird quirks in spots. My time was so good that I beat the game and spent the effort to collect every little hidden thing. That might not sound like much, but I don’t beat all games I play, so I feel this is worth something!
Hollow Knight is a quintessential metroidvania, oozing with its gloomy charm and strange cast of character, this nail-wielding bug-starring platformer is a game I really enjoyed. A bunch of smart systems working together with familiar tropes and design concepts make for a really well-playing responsive action game with a ton of places to discover and enemies to fight. If you haven’t played Hollow Knight, I really recommend it!
INSIDE is the spiritual successor to Limbo; an atmospheric, creepy, strange and sometimes brutal platformer taking place in a strange surreal land. Playing a nameless kid, you strut along buildings, fields and weird facilities for no discernible reason, besides the fact that you are pursued by men in black, dogs, killer mermaids and strange robots. I had a good time with this game, even if some parts were just frustrating and if the balance of puzzles wasn’t always on point. It was still pretty good, and I recommend it!
Iconoclasts is a delightful metroidvania that reminded me of a bunch of neat feelings plucked from other games combined together to create this stylish and interesting adventure platformer. Going around with your giant wrench, you fight enemies, solve puzzles and collect things while advancing a riveting story with pretty interesting characters and foes to defeat. I had a good time with it! I found some of the puzzles a bit fiddly and the upgrade system to be too thin, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Cuphead is a neat little platformer featuring creative and colorful boss fights that reminds me of Contra and other run-and-gun games of old. You go through a world map - that looks like the one in Commander Keen 4: Keen Dreams - and fight through stages and bosses, getting coins and buying powerups, getting new weapons and uncovering special moves in order to save your soul from the devil. I've played through most of the game in co-op, and even if it became a bit frustrating because of the difficulty, I would still recommend it. Just know what you're getting into!
Inexistence is a platformer RPG that didn't do anything for me. I've found it too difficult and I've found that it didn't offer me enough customization or options in order to defeat the challenges in front of me. I feel like I've gave it its fair shot, but couldn't muster enjoyment out of it. On the positive side, I liked the graphics and style of the game.
Dex is a cyberpunk RPG adventure game with platforming elements that tries to combine lots of cool things but fails at integrating everything into a compelling package. Shoddy combat, frustrating hacking minigame that comprise a big chunk of this universe, weird storytelling set in an unpleasant setting didn't help me get into it enough to keep pushing past everything that frustrated me, so I gave up quite quickly.
Super Mario Run isn't a great game and it doesn't have enough content to offer, what it has is that Nintendo polish and a few good ideas that should've been exploited more and in a different package. SMR is a platformer where mario always runs and when you tap, he jumps, if you hold your tap for longer, the jump is higher. You can also tap to make him flip in the air and keep altitude and tap when hitting walls to wallkick. That's pretty much everything in terms of controls. It's possible to make a good mario game out of this idea, but what they did wasn't enough.
I had waited until Starbound officially came out to look at it - after all, I'm not a big fan of early access products and to have to restart because progress gets erased, things like that. The wait for this Terraria-meets-space game has been a bit long, but the final product is interesting. I can't say that I enjoy it as much as I did Terraria - and it is no secret that I saw pretty much everything in Starbound through this comparison. Maybe if I had infinite time and patience, I would've given more hours to Starbound, but as it is, I think I'm done with it.
Super Chibi Knight is a zelda 2 inspired game, which is interesting, but the execution is kinda lacking. The game has its charm but I really didn't have fun playing it, so I think that I gave it a fair shake, but poor controls and weird difficulty made me just stop after only a few hours.
Ori And The Blind Forest is a neat little metroidvania with a really nice visual style. Some of its systems are quite interesting and I had a good time playing it, even if it ultimately ended in frustration towards the way this game checkpoints your progress. With RPG mechanics, exploration and some good skill-based platforming, this could have been an amazing game, but it sadly just came up short to that.
Castle In The Darkness is mighty tough and loves to make references to various NES games. It's a metroidvania where you play a knight going around variously difficult maps, killing enemies, getting gold and finding items. There are traps everywhere and the checkpoints are too few. If the game had allowed some kind of easier mode, I probably would've stuck with it until the very end, unfortunately the high difficulty combined with some frustration towards certain systems made me stop after a few days of playing.
Apotheon is a bit weird. It has the trappings of a metroidvania, but some of its elements feel more like Dark Souls-ish systems, and the basic controls didn't feel good to me at all. I gave it a fair try, but I didn't enjoy it very much. I'll take a few seconds to say that it has a cool graphical style and potentially neat concepts, however.
This is a bad game. If you ignore the core, the mechanics around it are encrusted with layers upon layers of systems, resources, microtransactions and other purchases, unlockable content and levels, things that need to be added carefully to not spoil the broth. But then, if you look at the main game, this just adds insult to injury, as the core gameplay is clunky, unbalanced and not fun.