Browsing: platformer

New stages, bosses, power-ups and soundtrack.

D-Pad Studios might be best known for its story-based platformer Owlboy, but it is worth remembering that the developers were in fact behind another game prior to this, Savant – Ascent, and, neatly, that game is about to turn ten years old.

So what exactly does turning ten mean for this gorgeous shoot-em-up platformer? Well, a tenth-anniversary remastered edition is on its way and it’s bringing with it a boatload of new content.

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*spooking intensifies*.

It’s remarkable how easy it can be to see the effects of developers’ genuine passion when playing a video game. In Kraino Origins—the product of one man, Angel Dorantes—you can just feel how much appreciation the dev has for classic retro platformers. Better yet, it turns out that he clearly understands what made the classics so great; Kraino Origins is a good time.

You take the role of the titular skeleton and are tasked with going through eight levels of spooky, scary action. Gameplay takes the shape of a typical retro action platformer, and Kraino is clearly inspired by many of the classics. There’s a little bit of Mega Man in here, a little more Castlevania, some Super Mario Bros. 3, but Kraino doesn’t feel overly derivative of such titles, largely because of its excellent level design. Each level is thematically distinct and introduces a few unique level gimmicks, such as conveyor belts or floating leaves, which are slowly built up into harder challenges over the course of the stage.

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Dead good.

In 2019, Magic Design Studios—a new team comprised of many ex-Ubisoft staff—put out the Rayman-esque Unruly Heroes, which we thought was a great platformer with some amazing visuals. For the next few years, the team went quiet while working on its next game, revealed in late 2021 as Have A Nice Death, a tough action roguelite about the grim reaper. Since then, it’s been gradually baking in early access on Steam and now that it finally reached 1.0 status, it’s received a console-exclusive release on Switch. We’re happy to report that the developer has succeeded with its sophomore outing; Have a Nice Death is an enjoyable and addictive experience that roguelite fans should take note of.

It places you in the role of Death himself, who has grown tired of the hard graft involved in harvesting souls for millennia. To take the weight off his shoulders, he decides to start a corporation to hire various ghouls and ghosts to do the work for him while he can distantly manage affairs from a comfy executive office. For years, Death enjoys putting his feet up and letting the Kafkaesque organization do its thing while he just rubber stamps the paperwork that comes across his desk, but matters begin to get out of hand when the admin rises to ridiculous levels. It turns out that Death delegated too many tasks; all the beings he appointed to oversee transitions to the afterlife have gotten much too trigger-happy and have been going way over quota. Death thus picks up his old scythe and begins a little corporate restructuring, setting out on a journey through every floor of every department to aggressively lay off his misbehaving staff.

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3DS eShop-only titles worth picking up pronto.

It’s the final countdown — the 3DS eShop is closing for new purchases on Monday, so we’re republishing this guide to highlight some gems you might want to consider snapping up. You’ve got this weekend to make sure you’ve bought anything you might want to play…


The 3DS eShop is closing down, after over a decade of service. It’s not a huge surprise, but it is a huge bummer, because that means that we only have until 27th March 2023 to purchase some of the best games on the console — the ones that were only ever available on the 3DS eShop.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

The collectathon is far from over.

Publisher Top Hat Studios has announced that last year’s throwback platformer Frogun will be landing itself a sequel, as Frogun Encore is set to bring even more low-poly vibes our way this summer.

The last retro-inspired puzzle platformer was an all-around good time when it leapt onto the Switch in 2022 and the sequel looks as if it is doing much more of the same.

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Make room on your SD card!

We’ve updated this list with lots of new entries for 2023, and included release dates on some long-awaited titles. Happy wishlisting!


2022 is dead, long live 2023. Let’s hope this year is better and brighter than the last, eh? We’ve already rounded up our most-anticipated games for 2023, but that tends to cover the big dogs with gigantic marketing budgets, so, why not shine our spotlight on some of the smaller-but-brilliant games coming to the Nintendo Switch this year?

Read the full article on nintendolife.com