Game: Meganoid
Genre: Adventure, Platformer, Action, Arcade
System: Nintendo Switch (Also on PC and mobile)
Developer|Publisher: Orange Pixel
Age Rating: EU 7+ | US Everyone
Price: UK £8.99 | EU € 14,99 | US $14.99
Release Date: September 8th 2020
Review code provided with many thanks to Orange Pixel
Back Story
Orange Pixel is a developer I’ve followed for quite sometime. My first encounter with the developers games was at a indie video game convention several years ago in the UK. While admiring all the rows of games being showcased on PS3 consoles I noticed a small stand of Vita consoles. On one of those consoles was a little game called Gunslugs. A cute pixel based game with rogue like mechanics I instantly warmed to. So of course I went home and added that to my Vita library. I ended up following Orange Pixels blog online and discovered other games of a similar art style like Heroes of Loot. What stood out most was Orange Pixel is a solo developer called Pascal. Game development is tough and it’s quite wonderful to see Pascal manage it but also share his thoughts about development online. If you have any interest in game development I highly recommend following his blog. Anyway that’s enough fan boy-ing, let’s review Meganoid.
Descend the Meganoid Ship
Meganoid is a platformer where you play a engineer who has been tasked by a scientist to repair the Meganoid space ship. Simple story and straight into the action. You enter a randomly generated 2D level where you just need to find the exit at the bottom and progress to the next level. However, you’ll soon find (like I did the first time I played this) that you will probably die in under a minute and start all over again.
This is Hard
Yes, Megaoid is brutally hard. There are enemies, lasers, spikes all sorts of hazards looking to take you out. The only thing at your disposable to start with are 8 dynamite sticks which you can use to blow through the floors if you need to. You can also defeat enemies by jumping on their heads because, hey if it works for Mario why not in a space ship. There is not really a right or wrong way to play the game. If you want you can simply speed to the exit but there is merit to stopping and exploring each level. Hidden around are coins to collect which you can exchange at shops for items to help in your run. Their are also various key cards which are very useful provided you can find the correct terminal to use them.
This is very much a game where the odds will not be in your favour. But through persistence you will now and then come across a run where everything just goes swimmingly. Then you fall into a pit of spikes and die and it’s back to the start. While this may seem frustrating I really enjoyed this loop. Since the levels are randomly generated there’s always the incentive to try again even if it means failure. The game also loads instantly which is a huge plus. I found this game ideal to play in small bursts and ideal if you only have a few minutes of game time to spare. The game runs solidly in TV and handheld mode.
Cute Pixel Graphics
The graphics are simple pixels in design, a design Orange Pixel are known for. The characters are kinda cute looking. What made me chuckle is the game has this horror vibe going on where the music is quite ambient and creepy and you can even hear the growls of the monsters. But when you see them of course they are these cute little pixel creatures. I guess it made me smile more then scare me but didn’t see it as a bad thing.
The Niggles
Some minor niggles. The controls felt somewhat clunky in places. While functional in most instances sometimes the jumping felt a little off making it hard to take those leap of faiths when taking down enemies. The random generation of the game also meant you can be on the run that’s going very well only for the difficulty to suddenly spike. A fun risk for me but this might frustrate those looking for a more guided and linear experience.
Mega Fun
Meganoid is a fun survival platformer with a hearty challenge. You will die a lot but the randomly generated levels kept giving that incentive to return again and again even if the odds were rarely in my favour. I look forward to more of Orange Pixels work coming to Switch.
Final Verdict: I like it a lotÂ
