For someone who didn't pay much attention nor respect to platformers past early '90s and considered the genre to be exploited to its (creative) death I was completely gobsmacked by Ori. The game is stunningly gorgeous (you can measure framerate in wallpapers per second), beautifully animated (not only is it incredibly fluid, with animations existing for different transitions between animations, but you are hard pressed to find an element of the scenery that is completely static), with jaw dropping soundtrack to match. Past surface appeal it also plays extremely well, being dynamic, incredibly responsive, and full of tight, interesting mechanics including perhaps Ori's signature move (hard to tell because of how many abilities you get) - allowing propelling yourself off enemies and projectiles in mid air, while sending them in the opposite direction. To put the dynamism and freedom of movement in perspective - the very first ability allows you to scale pretty much any vertical wall, towards the end you will hardly ever touch the ground - partly because it is mostly going to be spikes and/or lava at that point, challenges being tailored to Ori's abilities. Fair warning: Ori is NOT an easy game, you WILL get frustrated to the point of screaming gibberish at walls. Even the save system is novel combining best parts of save at will (duh) and checkpoints (tension!). Combat is the weakest part, partly excused by not being the focus (even boss battles are replaced by escape sequences) and need for reliable, predictable enemy behaviour (for puzzles and platforming). Despite being simple the story is very well constructed and told - the authors will have you had at least once, and they also accomplished one thing most studios strive for, yet fail hilariously - hooking player emotionally in the first 10' (and then ruthlessly using it to nail player right in the feels, with surgical precision, repeatedly). At 9h it is way too short, though. You might have to play twice.
