Yoku’s Island Express is a really cute and novel idea - a pinball metroidvania - where you explore a big island trying to deliver letters and solve a mystery, sometimes by trudging along at a snail’s pace, but mainly by playing through small pinball sections where you bump your ball-like character with flippers, trying to hit switches, collect fruit, and move on to the next place. It’s a game with a lot of heart and charm, but it really wasn’t for me; I had too much difficulty with the pinball sections and didn’t find them that fun.
The Messenger is pretty neat, with great chiptuney music, impressive pixel art and tight gameplay, it’s a Ninja Gaiden-esque love letter that evolves into an interesting dual-world metroidvania after you think the game might be over. I was turned off by the writing of the game, which kinda clashed with the overall themes, but still had a pretty good time with it!
I’ve always looked at the La Mulana franchise from the exterior; A love letter to older games, it was always a bit too opaque and too rough for me, so I never really played the first one. The second one looked really promising and interesting, so I gave that a shot. It was indeed, full of possibilities and mysteries to solve, but still too opaque and difficult for me. The lack of direction, the ease at which the ruins will just kill you and the old-school style of saving your progress and losing everything else you do if you die made me stop playing. It’s too bad, because otherwise I really would’ve loved trying to go through La Mulana 2!
Headlander is a funny little metroidvania from Double Fine where you play a disembodied head, flying around on a space station, trying to stop an evil computer from controlling humanity. When I first started playing the game, I somehow thought erroneously that it was going to have more of a puzzle slant to it than it ultimately did, but I really enjoyed my time with the game! With a good mix of exploration and combat and only some small gripes related to the controls, I’d recommend Headlander if you’re looking for a chill and very stylish adventure.