Sentient Pixels

Shout it from the rooftops, proclaim it on the streets. Huntdown is the greatest thing since the original Contra. So much love has gone into the making of the game, it literally drips with attention and care. Every pixel breathes, every neon tinged city scape delights. This is quite honestly the best side scrolling love letter to 80s cyberpunk and run and gun platformers ever made. The only thing that probably might give it a run for its money is Cuphead. 

To me, Hyper Light Drifter is what Zelda should always have been. I know this is a provocative thing to say, but Zelda, while having laid the template for so much, and so well, fails spectacularly on two things: currency, and combat. Combat in Zelda is more a matter of what equipment you have and less of skill. As for currency, the less said about those green emeralds the better. Platformers have you collect things for the sake of collecting things, it's true. But it's different for an action adventure game: there's so much you can do with the mechanics of money in a video game. Hyper Light Drifter has Zelda's exploration, puzzle solving (albeit very slight) but where it truly excels is the feeling it gives you after landing a rightly timed slash of the sword followed by two quick shots with your laser pistol. There's nothing quite like it in video gaming history. The pixel art is also beautiful.

Strangely, I think I wouldn't have hated The End is Nigh when I was growing up with less demanding platformers. I don't hate it now, obviously - in fact, I think it might just be better than its predecessor. It's hard, and sometimes a little unfair when it comes to the single minded intensity with which you need to time your jumps, but the ultimate feeling is one of deep satisfaction. Growing up, I found much more harmless platformers more difficult, in a sense, because difficulty was kind of the benchmark. So otherwise colorful looking games showed a darkly vicious side to them when you least expected it. The End is Nigh is like the dark mirror image of a dark impulse most old school games still share, to this day. It's also a joy to play.

In a sense, Ori's second game is the perfect metroidvania for those who can't stand the genre. It's possibly an open secret that metroidvanias sacrifice skill for exploration and ability upgrades. The perfect metroidvania is one which could do everything well - offer you a variety of abilities to suit different situations, let you explore to your heart's content without feeling bored, and challenge your platforming chops. Would you believe it then if I told you this game does them all?