Currently Playing – Ori and the Blind Forest

I had a weekend set aside to relax, so I spent some of it playing Ori and the Blind Forest on Xbox One. I first saw the game at the ID@Xbox showcase at GDC, and then it was available just a few days later, so I took the plunge. It’s super pretty but super hard, like Super Metroid mashed up with Super Meat Boy … and then rolled in a Miyazaki film (I ran out of ‘supers’). I’m just past the 50 percent mark, and I’ve died over 200 times. Which is probably lousy!

ori-sm2
ori-sm1

But look how pretty it is!

I just changed my Twitter background to this just because it’s so soothing. It felt a little weird to have Mario and not a Microsoft game in that background (even though I still love Mario).

I’d definitely recommend the game, if you have a high tolerance for thumb numbing frustration. (Or, naturally, if you are much better at tricky platforming than I am. The GDC demoer had a much easier time with the “tree escape” sequence than I did.)

ori-sm5

The big trends in indie gaming this year so far seem to be Metroidvanias in the single player, and 4 or 8-player local arena games for the multiplayer. Towerfall and Sportsfriends are the trendsetters here. At GDC I also spent some time with ClusterPuck 99, which I’ve written about at Tap-Repeatedly after a good chat with the developers.

Metroidvanias I’ve played so far this year:

  • Ori and the Blind Forest
  • Chasm
  • Axiom Verge

Local Arena games I’ve played (or at least watched) so far this year:

I feel like I’m forgetting some, and here it’s only March.

Feel free to talk about how “metroidvania” is a bad name for a genre – I am not 100% on it, but it seems to be what everyone’s settling on for now.


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2 responses to “Currently Playing – Ori and the Blind Forest”

  1. M. Joshua Avatar

    Hey Amanda, I finished Ori just a day or two ago. It’s honking glorious in every one of my books. I love it so much.

    And thank you for pointing out Clusterpuck 99! I completely missed that in my local-multiplayer binging that I’ve been doing lately. Local multi is totally a trend that’s expanding this year. I chronicled all of what I found last year on Plus 10 Damage (http://plus10damage.com/blog/2014/12/26/best-trends-of-2014-couch-multiplayer-especially-on-pc) but I missed a bunch. They’re weirdly hard to find.

    So far this year, some of my favorites are:

    Paperbound
    Friendship Club
    Stardust Vanguards
    Particle Mace
    Apotheon
    Skyhook
    Rockets Rockets Rockets

    1. secondtruth Avatar
      secondtruth

      Awesome!
      Sorry your comment was in moderation so long – I filter spam pretty aggressively.

      That multiplayer article is fantastic! More games to check out…

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