This game ate my weekend. It's pretty, it sounds great, it has fun (and forgiving) pinball mechanics, it has puzzles, it has a fun story, it has metroid-like progression mechanics... It costs less than 20 dollars!

I think the closest game I've played that brought this much joy it would be Guacamelee or Steamworld Dig 2. The devs also listen to their playerbase, and removed a 'spyware-like' add-on they had included in the game.

While I don't plan on replaying it any time soon (too many other games on my queue), this game would be an excellent contender for speed-runs as progression does not have to be linear. I used slug bombs to finish most of the game before returning to the main storyline to collect the last few abilities.

2022 review update:
STEAMDECK+RANDOMIZER MODE.
I mentioned speedrunning, right? Now there's a randomizer mode and it is AWESOME. I was stuck in a lecture for the past 3 days and I had a blast getting to know the game through the lens of a random seed on my Steamdeck. I had one crash to desktop but that was after hours of play--the game has frequent save spots so it was a non-issue.

This game ate my weekend. It's pretty, it sounds great, it has fun (and forgiving) pinball mechanics, it has puzzles, it has a fun story, it has metroid-like progression mechanics... It costs less than 20 dollars! I think the closest game I've played that brought this much joy it would be Guacamelee or Steamworld Dig 2. The devs also listen to their playerbase, and removed a 'spyware-like' add-on they had included in the game. While I don't plan on replaying it any time soon (too many other games on my queue), this game would be an excellent contender for speed-runs as progression does not have to be linear. I used slug bombs to finish most of the game before returning to the main storyline to collect the last few abilities. 2022 review update: STEAMDECK+RANDOMIZER MODE. I mentioned speedrunning, right? Now there's a randomizer mode and it is AWESOME. I was stuck in a lecture for the past 3 days and I had a blast getting to know the game through the lens of a random seed on my Steamdeck. I had one crash to desktop but that was after hours of play--the game has frequent save spots so it was a non-issue.