Mable & The Wood

...instead, I'm told I have to vanquish some random critters because (checks notes) that would 'bring the dawn'. The result is a poorly looking, malevolent parody of a metroidvania. Nondescript room after nondescript room, dead end after dead end, no discovery, no sense of wonder, no thrill at exploring a new world. No point playing it further. Mabel And The Wood? More like Mabel In The Trash Can.

Decent metroidvania that combines innovative combat via movement through multiple shapeshifting forms. Different forms gives you unique ways to move and interact with the environment. The story had a lot of potential to be great but there is no climax at the end with no additional information beyond the reveal of who Mabel really is. That being said the overarching story would actually make for a good Manga or Anime that would be nice to delve deeper into the lore. Music is great because it fits the characteristics of the game very well, there was a segment in the forest where it reminded me of the musical score in Chrono Trigger. There are a lot of glitches in this game, however none of them should be game-breaking since if you get stuck in wall you can use the mole-form to dig your way out (most of the time). I wouldn't bother with the pacifist route, the idea seems good of paper but bad in practice as you'll be even more frustrated without additional forms. The dumbest idea in the game is making Mabel lose her diamonds after taking a hit, just like Sonic loses his rings. It disincentivizes people from even bothering collecting them since you'll lose them just as easy. Speaking of diamonds you'll never see the shop keeper again unless you backtrack for useless potions. Additional effort into the pacing of the story, more explanations, revelations, bug fixes, quick travel way points and maybe a graphics update would go a long way to making this game even better.

6 of 5 must play. 5 of 5 great story great gameplay. 4 of 5 great story average gameplay. 3 of 5 average story average gameplay. 2 of 5 play only if it's your favorite genre. 1 of 5 play if you have nothing better to do. 0 of 5 play if you're a masochist. -1 of 5 avoid. Mable and the ood score is 0 of 5.

This game is tremendously engaging. It plays really quick, and I found myself almost completing it in one go. My biggest qualm is that it can be a buggy. That being said, none of the bugs I encountered were game breaking and were easily remedied.

This is a delightful little game, I'm just not into platformers. Nice design, characters, gameplay gimmic. If you like platformers, give it a go.