Sights & Sounds
- Excellent pixel art all around. Gave me warm fuzzy memories of playing Super Metroid as a kid and Zero Mission on GBA in high school
- Similar to those games, you'll be fighting weird biomechanical monsters and giant bosses (most of which look pretty cool)
- The music runs the gamut from good to stellar. The music from Kur is going to be stuck in my head for a while
- Even the menus are nice. All in all, the presentation feels well-crafted and faithful to its inspirations
Story & Vibes
- The music and visual style do great job setting the tone of the game, which is largely mysterious and a little ominous
- To give anything away about the story would do a disservice to the game. Let's just say that it's heavily sci-fi with some parallel universe/time travel elements, and is decent enough on its own
- What really makes the world feel more interesting is the environmental storytelling. You'll find yourself clamboring over and shooting bad guys on a bunch of weird scenery. Stuff like piles of skeletons, corridors of cages, and weird incubation tube looking things. If you take the time to explore for notes and pay attention to the dialogue, you'll figure out why most of it is there
Playability & Replayability
- The game's Metroid inspiration obviously bleeds into the gameplay
- Exploration is the centerpiece here. Drill everything, jump everywhere, and use the glitch mechanic on anything that looks slightly out of place. If you can't access a location yet, note the room. You'll be rewarded with some cool stuff
- That "cool stuff" is indeed really fun to use. The drone teleport and labcoats were notable highlights that really open up movement throughout the environment. Some of the weapons are also very fun to use, even if some are only situational or gimmicky.
- The equipment and upgrades are almost enough to balance out all the backtracking they require to obtain, but not quite. Enemies respawn if you move more than two rooms over, and there is no teleport option to speed up traversal in the huge world. This is really my only gripe about the game, though
- Don't think I'll be back for a replay, but I will certainly be tucking into the sequel at some point
Overall Impressions & Performance
- I played the game on the Steam Deck to up the GBA Metroid nostalgia factor. Also, it's way easier to play with the d-pad on the Steam Deck, which is great for 2D games
- Ran very well the whole way through
Final Verdict
- 9/10. I know "metroidvanias" have saturated the indie game scene for several years, but this is definitely one worth playing though (especially if you lean more towards the Metroid side of that portmanteau)
- Excellent pixel art all around. Gave me warm fuzzy memories of playing Super Metroid as a kid and Zero Mission on GBA in high school
- Similar to those games, you'll be fighting weird biomechanical monsters and giant bosses (most of which look pretty cool)
- The music runs the gamut from good to stellar. The music from Kur is going to be stuck in my head for a while
- Even the menus are nice. All in all, the presentation feels well-crafted and faithful to its inspirations
Story & Vibes
- The music and visual style do great job setting the tone of the game, which is largely mysterious and a little ominous
- To give anything away about the story would do a disservice to the game. Let's just say that it's heavily sci-fi with some parallel universe/time travel elements, and is decent enough on its own
- What really makes the world feel more interesting is the environmental storytelling. You'll find yourself clamboring over and shooting bad guys on a bunch of weird scenery. Stuff like piles of skeletons, corridors of cages, and weird incubation tube looking things. If you take the time to explore for notes and pay attention to the dialogue, you'll figure out why most of it is there
Playability & Replayability
- The game's Metroid inspiration obviously bleeds into the gameplay
- Exploration is the centerpiece here. Drill everything, jump everywhere, and use the glitch mechanic on anything that looks slightly out of place. If you can't access a location yet, note the room. You'll be rewarded with some cool stuff
- That "cool stuff" is indeed really fun to use. The drone teleport and labcoats were notable highlights that really open up movement throughout the environment. Some of the weapons are also very fun to use, even if some are only situational or gimmicky.
- The equipment and upgrades are almost enough to balance out all the backtracking they require to obtain, but not quite. Enemies respawn if you move more than two rooms over, and there is no teleport option to speed up traversal in the huge world. This is really my only gripe about the game, though
- Don't think I'll be back for a replay, but I will certainly be tucking into the sequel at some point
Overall Impressions & Performance
- I played the game on the Steam Deck to up the GBA Metroid nostalgia factor. Also, it's way easier to play with the d-pad on the Steam Deck, which is great for 2D games
- Ran very well the whole way through
Final Verdict
- 9/10. I know "metroidvanias" have saturated the indie game scene for several years, but this is definitely one worth playing though (especially if you lean more towards the Metroid side of that portmanteau)