Astronite Analysis – Xbox Series X | we are xbox

JanduSoftpublisher of some of the most surprising indies in the industry such as the surprising Sword of the Necromancer or the creepy Evil Insidebrings us, thanks to the work of Dume Games Studio -studio formed only by a great developer- astronitea gem turned into a metroidvania that transports us to the old days when our only concern was to pass that damn boss that was choking us.

We start by putting ourselves in the shoes of astronite, a brave explorer and former inhabitant of Neplea, a planet that was invaded by surprise by an unknown entity whose army took over everything. In search of answers, our protagonist’s ship suffers a collision and after an emergency landing he is trapped in his old home.

Our mission? Try to get out of Neplea unscathed but, while we’re at it, also eradicate all the evil that lives there and free her from the entity and her puppets. Of course, it will not be as easy as we already assumed: we will start from 0 Well, if crashing were not enough, soon they will steal all our equipment, which means that both our weapon and abilities to overcome the different screens will be found and improved as we progress and get power-ups, making things easier for us but neither too much, because each challenge that comes our way will also increase its difficulty, although if we want more we can always face the echo challenges.

Obstacles of all kinds, barriers, spikes and unfriendly enemies distributed in different biomes, although along the way we will also find curious characters in which the player decides whether to trust them or not.

As we have already seen in some metroidvania, the title of Dume Games It has a shop with interesting objects, whose currency is the shpirti, the spirits of the enemies and that, unfortunately, we will lose if they kill us, the good thing? We can recover them by advancing from the save point to the same point where they killed us as long as they don’t kill us again along the way, of course.

To complement this and encourage the player to go through each point on the map, one of its strengths is that not a linear platformerwhich means that on each screen there may be different paths and directions to take, it is our decision where to go, but it is true that we should explore any hidden corner of the game in search of interesting objects and real challenges… as long as you don’t believe in the saying ‘curiosity killed the cat’.

Simple and concise.

astronite It has a fairly classic black and white aesthetic, if it is true that it has some special effects in combat and in the environment such as rain or bubbles on the ‘marine’ screens that give it a touch of life and it is visually nice, but there it stays.

Its gameplay, as we have already mentioned a bit, is quite direct and simple and it is not something never seen, which surely small of being a bit ‘the same as always’. But the truth is that within that idea of ​​its creator of not wanting to risk or beat around the bush -personally-, I think that is exactly where it stands out. You don’t want to mess around with complicated plots or advanced gameplay techniques.

Conclution:

Astronite is an old school platformer, one of those that we enjoyed a lot when we were little. It is quite simple but it offers what you really want to give. It goes to the point, to offer an entertaining gaming experience and to the end, bringing us the true essence of the old platforms and making us travel to our childhood. Nothing to envy other similar games.