My hopes weren't to high upon downloading this game; It was free, screenshots appeared to be more... beta-esque than a finished game. But it was only 120~MB, so I figured why not? Immediately upon gaining control of the player character (post-intro) I became enthralled by the retrograde scenery, fitting music and smooth controls. I started playing this game at about 7PM EST yesterday and only just now pried myself away to take a break, so that's 12 hours of gaming and I'm only at 37% completion. This game has fun 2D exploration, challenging platforming and puzzles and boss fights that incorporate both platforming and puzzles. The story of the game thus far has been relatively engaging and lore is provided randomly throughout the game. There are minigames, side missions and treasures to keep you busy while you explore the areas you've been before. All in all, this game has so far exceeded expectations for a free indie game. I do have a few reservations, which I will list here: * I have personally run into a few CTDs, but that could just be on my end. Never twice in the same place. * The Microsoft XBox 360 Controller Driver and a wired XBox 360 controller seem to be incompatible with the game. But then again, the XBox 360 controller tends to do that with a lot of Joypad compatible games. (only the left analogue stick worked for me) * Jumping (especially with spring mushrooms) feels a bit "strict", as in your jumps have to be very precise, like standing on the very edge of a ledge to hook the other platform, lest you fall on some spikes. Mushrooms and tend to nitpick your jumps and send you either not far or not high enough. This is especially prevalent with sequenced jumps. * Gold is a bit too scarce and requires a lot of grinding later on. As a reference point, my laptop has a Pentium 1.9GHz Dual Core, 2GB RAM and Intel chipset graphics (no VRAM whatsoever) and the game runs at a solid 50-60fps under most conditions, so this game runs well on lower-end laptops.
