Maybe the best paced metroidvania? Hands out power ups at a perfect clip. And just one of the best feeling video games to control. Goes a long way in just feeling satisfying to run around and shoot. Makes Metroid 1 playable in 2023!
(more…)Category: Metroidvania
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Timespinner – Symphony of the Alright
If you’ve never heard of indie games and really like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, then boy have I got something for you.
Let’s be honest: There might be a few too many devs releasing 2D platformers with pixel art. That’s just a fact of life. Are some of them uninspired? Sure. Is Timespinner the best one? Nope, but I sure had a pleasant weekend with it.
Timespinner is the closest game to Castlevania’s opus since the incredible Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow back in 2003. That doesn’t mean it’s as good, but it suuuuure feels like either one of those games, and you might even confuse it with one of them if you squint hard enough. You run back and forth between a 2D map filled with monsters and upgrades and ledges just a bit higher than your jump and then double jumps. You know exactly what you’re getting here. Oh, also you can stop time but it’s almost useless and comes into play like three times in the whole game.
The best part of Timespinner is its weapon system. Instead of swords and bows, you’re armed with orbs imbued with magic spells, and then you get even cooler spells from there. In my roughly 6 hours it took me to 100% the game and see all of its endings, I ended up with a good dozen or so different spells, and very few of them were useless or not worth seeing. You’ll start off with a basic projectile, then some swords, then lightning powers, and so on. Maybe only twice did I not at least enjoy experimenting with each ability as I found it, as they all offer some unique functionality or are just plain fun to use. For every orb also comes its equivalent super attack that uses mana, and those’re super neat as well. Once you get the gigantic sword slice ability that wipes anything off the screen, you’ll only feel more and more powerful from there.
Timespinner is a Metroidvania-lite if there ever was one. There’s a lot of stuff that’s worth seeing, but it all feels a bit too slight. One of my biggest issues is how samey and forgettable a bunch of the areas are, and that you’ll even begin to notice identical level layouts by the end. I closed in on the end-game and was waiting for the big reveal, SotN style, that maybe I was only seeing the first half before some big twist. And then I watched the credits.
None of this is to say Timespinner is a bad game. It’s not at all. I recommend playing it if you want to see a handful of new tricks that I somehow hadn’t seen in this well worn territory. Pay your 20 bucks, have a solid 5 or 6 hours with it, and then go play Hollow Knight and wonder if the genre can ever recover from being so soundly put to bed.
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Symphony of the Hollow Knight
I had better titles for the post, but it’s a Metroidvania with excellent music. Admit it, I could have done worse.
From just the first couple of hours, unless something goes horribly wrong, this is on par with Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight. [That was a surprisingly well done Metroidvania from 2016 that you should totally go play after you check this out.] Good bosses, plenty of areas to explore, powerups to uncover, and Dark Souls influence? Uhh…I’m not sure how I missed this the day it came out. Team Cherry’s Kickstarter success may have passed me right by, but now you don’t have that excuse.
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Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight – A Little More Exploration, A Little Less Action Please
It’s like Dark Souls but…
but no but really it kind of is.
Okay, so it’s more like if one of the Gameboy Advance Castlevania’s had a handful of Dark Souls elements sprinkled on top. This is a Vania riff first and foremost, but the Souls influences are obvious. And it’s pretty fun!
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A Mini Falafel Adventure is More Than an Appetizer
If you have any love of platformers, boss rushes, Kirby, Metroid, inventive weapons, humor, jammin’ soundtracks, or Good Video Games, I’ll go ahead and direct you to this link —-> A Mini Falafel Adventure.
My work here should be done. (more…)
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Birdsong is Screen-Sprawling Metroidvania
Ludum Dare always produces some of the year’s most interesting games, and Ludum Dare 31 is already shaping up with some excellent entries. December’s theme, “Entire Game on One Screen,” has already given us Birdsong, a visually striking Metroid inspired adventure. Developer Managore won 1st place Overall in Ludum Dare 29, and this one’s already shaping up to be a top contender.
Birdsong starts off as seemingly a traditional platformer for the first couple of seconds. As you begin to move across the screen, your view is zoomed out and warped, until you can see the entire world map stretching around you to the edges of the screen. It’s a brilliant effect, made better by the shock of the fake-out introduction.
It helps that it’s a well-done Metroidvania as well. You control a little bird, and have it hop through levels, dodging spikes and other obstacles. As you explore, you’ll find items that increase your jump height to expand your traversal skills, and others that allow you to build checkpoints in difficult locations.
The game’s biggest strength is in it’s totally unique visual effect. Every part of the level can be seen from anywhere, and walking simply wraps the screen around in front of where you’re moving. The furthest parts of the level taunt you from the opening moments, and finally making your way there feels like an accomplishment as you look back on where you’ve been.
When the Ludum Dare awards start coming around, I guarantee you’ll be hearing more about this one. Check out Birdsong on its Ludum Dare page, and check out the rest of the several hundred entries based around LD31’s theme. Designing around constraints always brings out creativity, so enjoy the new ideas while they’re fresh!
hippochippies 