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FleeFleet reviewed Ardy Lightfoot
I recently re-watched snesdrunk's review of Ardy Lightfoot where he describes it as comfort food. That pretty much hits the nail on the head for what this game is like for me: it's nothing exceptional, nor bad, its just comfortable. I've got a soft spot for it as it was a childhood game, but having done a recent playthrough again its flaws and all are a lot more apparent to me now.

Getting the best parts out of the way first, the presentation of the game is pretty cool. The only bit of dialogue is before the first real level of the game, explaining the purpose of the rainbow gems, after which its entirely conveyed through actions and expressions. The character sprite work here is good, everyone expressing a clear emotion in response to a situation or in an effort to give an idea of their personality, ultimately conveying a decent story. Cutscenes also often seamlessly transition to and from gameplay.

The music is perhaps my favourite part of the game. Its just sooo good. They all fit their respective moments and locations and really lend themselves well to enhancing the game's adventurous, long journey vibe. Hard to pick a fave track, its all just really memorable for me.

The gameplay is the majority of what makes up Ardy Lightfoot and unfortunately is also one of its weakest points. Its a simplistic platformer with the addition of a springy tail that lets you jump higher, your enemy eating buddy Pec, and a magic mirror that makes you immune to attacks for a few seconds (for some reason). The controls feel "off"; its hard to explain in words, but Ardy feels too slippery for my liking and too speedy for a game that seemingly doesn't want you to go fast more often than not. That issue blends in with the level design; the game is a breeze up until the pyramid after which random difficulty spikes crop up, namely with the platforming, which combined with the controls makes for an unnecessarily annoying time. Not to mention what appears to be collision detection issues that really ruin vital jumps and attacks. Bosses are similar where they're generally easy (and easy to cheese as well) but the difficulty really amps up with the lengthy final boss fight. All of it becomes a tad more frustrating knowing you only really have two hitpoints (and Pec acts as your first hitpoint, so losing him also makes dealing with enemies more annoying.)

Majority of the levels are kind of samey. The platforming in most of them is generally similar that the only things that can really make a level stand out are its music or a specific set piece. I would say the looks too, but the colour palettes of levels seem to share or have similar colours and tones, which blends them too much in my mind at least. The levels that do stand out most either look more visually interesting or have a particular gimmick to them; the latter part mostly ends up being prominent in later levels though, so the distribution definitely feels pretty unequal.

The gimmicks are really hit or miss, and this extends to both levels and bosses. Some levels like the underground passage are cool cuz of the puzzle element to them or having more interesting platforming, others feel more bullshitty or made worse by the controls and/or collision detection issues e.g. the one throne room section where you have to platform on arrows, god it sucks. Bosses' gimmicks suffer in that they're either easy to exploit or get the boss stuck in a loop, the only exception being the final boss whose 2nd phase has an annoying gimmick instead. The one notable missed potential is with Pec because two of the notable gimmicks grant him an ability important for progression, but there's only really 3 instances of this happening and with only 2 forms. These tended to be the most fun parts for me, so its a shame they didn't utilize Pec more like this.

That's really it, I guess. I'd go more in depth on individual levels but again they're not distinct enough, I'd be just repeating points. I will say my favourite levels were the one section in Throne Room with red Pec, Underground Passage and Catry's Tree Fortress for their music and progression, and Eaten where you explore the creepy and nauseating insides of a monster.

Overall, I don't know if I'd recommend Ardy unless you're curious. I like it, but its also just perfectly "ok". It's a quick playthrough at least.

If the "To be Continued" indicates anything, there were probably plans for a sequel that fell through. Which is unfortunate, because I feel like a sequel really would have ironed out the kinks this game had and be a smoother experience. Alas, it was not to be.

13 days ago


13 days ago


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