Recent reviews by hydra9

I was morbidly curious about this game. I also read an article about the small team at IguanaBee and felt some sympathy because they only had a year to make it.
A friend bought it for me on sale because I thought £8 was still too much. After playing it for 20 mins, I lost all sympathy for IguanaBee as I experienced horrible platforming and level design by an 8 year old, realised that some weird objects on the ground were meant to be houses, then saw the majestic (laughable) skull of Skull Island in the distance, tried to stroll down the valley towards it and was stopped immediately by an invisible wall. Meanwhile two dinosaurs were stuck up on a rock, endlessly running into each other. Then I got to the second big red wall that the tutorial had explained how to smash. Would this one smash? No. Could I progress? No. I kinda wanted to see more of this travesty but that's as far as I got.
How was this game released? How is it normally £35? Why is the version with a red colour filter an extra £12? Does no one have any shame? I'm normally all for the underdog, but IguanaBee should've trashed their hard drives instead of letting this out in public.

For anyone who likes a nice stripped-down Roguelite, this fits the bill and has enough of its own ideas - with a very distinctive art style. The main issue is the controls - It's a bit better once redefined but still the main cause of mental strain / mistakes is just occasional brainfart / pressing the wrong key. It's a bit weird; maybe it's just me. Apart from that, I feel like the player should be able to save after completing a set of 30 levels. True, it does unlock the next set... but if you quit, you lose your character with their perks. So the idea seems to be to complete 90 levels in one sitting - which is kind of crazy.
However, I can do 30 in one sitting and unlock the next set... presume I can 'complete' this game in this way although it wouldn't really count as a complete run.
All that aside, gameplay is good and compulsive and this tickles the part of my brain that enjoys Hoplite, Michael Brough games, etc., etc.

EDIT - Came back 4 years later and the dev patched in an autosave. Also I found a better key config than the crazy ♥♥♥♥ I came up with last time. Fun game!

If you've never experienced The Sentinel, the 1986 classic, now's an excellent time to see why it's gathered so many fans over the years.

Annwn is an inspired take on that venerable title, maintaining most of the original gameplay (absorb and project energy, teleport around procedurally generated islands, avoid the deadly glare of the slowly rotating watcher), but adding an upgrade system and optional story (which progresses via collectable fragments - and really adds an extra level of risk/reward to those islands that contain them).

As with the original game, there's a lot of strategy and tension involved - trying to survive while working out the best route up each mountain. I'm about ten islands in so far, and very much enjoying this eerie, abstract survival-puzzle game.