Abathor is a love letter to retro games, the kind that 30-somethings grew up with and loved.

The pixel art is beautiful, the music is fun to nod along to, there's great diversity in environments and mechanics even before you consider that each of the 4 characters plays differently with meaningful strengths and weaknesses.

Every level also makes available some lore text about the characters and world that help flesh out the story and setting. Each character has their own subplot woven into the larger narrative, and I appreciate that extra attention to detail and worldbuilding.

At the price point, I can recommend it.

That said, there are some very uneven spots, and some of the later levels rely heavily on platforming above bottomless pits and enemies placed to knock you off said platforms. This devolves into very frustrating gameplay especially when you need to play through several levels to get back to that point if you run out of lives.

There's also several mechanics you see twice and then never again (dolphins and minecarts) which is something that a lot of games from the era Abathor is emulating did. Then or now, I don't think vestigal mechanics like these are a good use of developer time for what amounts to mostly a gimmick.

FYI: Normal mode is challenging, and upon beating normal mode you unlock hard mode which is brutal (and has the true ending)

Abathor is a love letter to retro games, the kind that 30-somethings grew up with and loved. The pixel art is beautiful, the music is fun to nod along to, there's great diversity in environments and mechanics even before you consider that each of the 4 characters plays differently with meaningful strengths and weaknesses. Every level also makes available some lore text about the characters and world that help flesh out the story and setting. Each character has their own subplot woven into the larger narrative, and I appreciate that extra attention to detail and worldbuilding. At the price point, I can recommend it. That said, there are some very uneven spots, and some of the later levels rely heavily on platforming above bottomless pits and enemies placed to knock you off said platforms. This devolves into very frustrating gameplay especially when you need to play through several levels to get back to that point if you run out of lives. There's also several mechanics you see twice and then never again (dolphins and minecarts) which is something that a lot of games from the era Abathor is emulating did. Then or now, I don't think vestigal mechanics like these are a good use of developer time for what amounts to mostly a gimmick. FYI: Normal mode is challenging, and upon beating normal mode you unlock hard mode which is brutal (and has the true ending)