While it remains to be seen what new adventure awaits, the short GIF seemingly indicates another 2D title. Hopefully, we’ll learn more in the coming weeks as Gamescom approaches so stay tuned for additional details.

Owlboy is available for Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. It tells the story of the mute Otus who is training to be an owl. Residing in Vellie, a floating settlement, Otus’s world is turned upside-down when pirates attack and take hostages. Working with his friend Geddy and other allies, Otus embarks on a journey to save his fellow villagers and learn more about the history of the owls.

It's time! D-Pad Studio will be revealing it's NEW GAME at Gamescom #gamescom2022 (AUG 24-28).
Stay tuned! ✨ pic.twitter.com/IEISRibnoa

— D-Pad | Savant – Ascent REMIX | OUT NOW (@DPadStudio) July 29, 2022

In this feature, we’ll be talking about what we feel have been the 15 best Metroidvania games of the last few years. Given how spoilt for choice we are, it goes without saying that we’ll be missing out on a few games, so sound off about those in your comments below.

So let’s kick this off, and let’s begin with the most obvious choice:

HOLLOW KNIGHT

To say that Hollow Knight is not only one of the best games of the last few years, but quite simply one of the greatest games ever made, would not be an exaggeration in the slightest. Team Cherry’s masterpiece exudes a breathtaking level of confidence in everything it does, from the crisp combat, the incredible atmosphere, and the tight platforming to the labyrinthine map design, the charming visuals, and the memorable boss fights. It’s the standard that all Metroidvania games should aspire to, and stands toe-to-toe with genre giants like Super Metroid.

]]> https://gamingbolt.com/15-best-modern-metroidvania-games/feed 0 429830 https://gamingbolt.com/top-30-greatest-switch-games-you-need-to-play https://gamingbolt.com/top-30-greatest-switch-games-you-need-to-play#respond Mon, 28 Jan 2019 10:53:03 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=380693 The Nintendo Switch launched on March 3rd 2017 and has amassed an impressive range of titles despite its short life-cycle. Top-notch exclusives, indie titles, Wii U ports or third party titles that are incredible to play on the go – here are 30 Switch games that you have to play.

Owlboy

D-Pad Studio’s Owlboy first released in 2016 following years and years of development. Its charming art-style and believable characterization meshed well with the quasi-Metroidvania platforming it had to offer. Playing as Otis and flying through the skies to battle pirates and learn the truth about the world may not have been revolutionary but it’s utterly amazing adventure all the same.

The Nintendo Switch is the new success story for independent game developers, who have found an unusually receptive audience on the platform that will willingly buy their games in greater numbers than consumers on other systems will. That is why so may indie games do so well on the platform.

And now, the latest success story for an indie game on the Switch is Owlboy, which apparently did so well on the system that it had managed to turn a profit within 24 hours of being released on it- something the developer confirmed in a recent AMA on Reddit.

Given how fantastic the game is (you can check out our review for it for yourself here), I am glad that it did well. And hopefully, with the upcoming physical release (for PS4 as well as for Switch), it will manage to do even better. It’s a game that deserves all the success that it can get.

Meanwhile, the indie game success story continues on the Switch.

It’s been a long time coming, but Owlboy will finally be available on PlayStation 4 this month, D-Pad Studio has confirmed. The game was originally confirmed for PS4 for February 13, before a last minute delay. Now, we know it will be releasing on the system at last on April 10–that’s just a week from now!

A hugely critically acclaimed platformer adventure, the game will get a physically and digital release when it launches on the PS4. You can check out the official launch trailer for the game for yourself below.

Given how great Owlboy is, I hope PS4 owners enjoy it, and buy it in the numbers it deserves. That said, if you don’t want to wait for another week to get the game for yourself, the good news is, Owlboy is available on PC and Nintendo Switch right now—so you can just get it there if you’d rather not wait.

There is a drive to achieve perfection in every aspect of the game, from its striking retro visual aesthetic that is surprisingly full of detail, to its immaculate, consistently entertaining Metroidvania-style exploration, to even its narrative, which managed to keep me immersed from start to finish. Every aspect of the game bleeds into the other, adding to its authenticity and building upon its central mechanics to deliver a single cohesive and memorable experience.

"There is a drive to achieve perfection in every aspect of the game, from its striking retro visual aesthetic that is surprisingly full of detail, to its immaculate, consistently entertaining Metroidvania-style exploration, to even its narrative, which managed to keep me immersed from start to finish."

In Owlboy, you play as Otus, an owl who is ostracized in his community on account of his muteness, and just cannot seem to earn the approval of his Elders. Trouble soon strikes in the form of sky pirates though, throwing Otus into the middle of an endearing and strongly written coming-of-age tale. Surrounding Otus is a pretty big cast of supporting characters who come in the form of both, friend and enemy. Many of them, especially the ones who Otus spends the bulk of his time with throughout the game, are excellently written, lending the story an added layer of charm.

Another thing that helps in favour of these characters is the game’s animations, which are surprisingly detailed and emotive. It’s surprising, considering that Owlboy is a 2D pixel art game, but somehow its characters manage to convey a vast range of reactions and emotions through incredible animations. Each of these characters, though, are just as much a strength to Owlboy’s core gameplay as they are to the narrative. As the player, you will only ever be controlling Otus, who doesn’t have a whole lot of moves in his arsenal. He can fly, he can dash, and he can spin, but that’s about it.

This is where Otus’ friends, who join him along the journey and serve as his constant companions, come into the play. Otus flies around carrying one of his friends at a time, each of whom has a different ability or skill they can use, while the player has the ability to swap between them as and when they please. Though you only start the game with Geddy, Otus’ self-proclaimed best friend who can shoot at enemies and obstacles, characters constantly keep joining Otus, providing new abilities and introducing new mechanics almost constantly.

"It’s surprising, considering that Owlboy is a 2D pixel art game, but somehow its characters manage to convey a vast range of reactions and emotions through incredible animations."

Which, as you can imagine, means the Owlboy manages to keep from ever getting stale, with a constant string of new mechanics being thrown into the mix with regularity. This mechanic of swapping in and out of characters to utilize their unique abilities also ends up feeling like an even better defined trait of the game thanks to how excellently it is made use of in various other ways. Some areas may require you to use a specific character’s abilities, while another’s might be the only thing that can clear an obstacle in another area. This lends the dungeon design and entire brand of exploration in Owlboy a very Metroidvaniae-esque feel.

Similarly, boss battles in Owlboy are also brilliant. Every dungeon in the game ends with a boss battle, and the design for each of these is incredible, always requiring the player to switch between their skills to figure out which one they need to use for the situation at hand. Boss fights aside, there are plenty of other memorable set-piece moments in Owlboy as well. The game is peppered intermittently with intense, thrilling chase scenes that have you constantly switching between characters during chases as you overcome enemies and obstacles. Though not all that common, these sections area easily among the game’s highlights.

The biggest victory Owlboy achieves on the gameplay front is how incredibly varied it is. From boss fights to exploration, from platforming to puzzles, from chase sequences to stealth sections, Owlboy is never afraid to switch things up, and is constantly and delightfully surprising. Incredibly enough, the game goes out of its way to make sure that its narrative and the parts that you’re actually playing are never at odds with each other. Almost everything is contextualized very well within the boundaries of the story. The narrative itself also constantly moves at a brisk pace, and thanks to sharp writing and a few unexpected surprises along the way, manages to hold attention for the entire 10 hour playthrough.

"The biggest victory Owlboy achieves on the gameplay front is how incredibly varied it is. From boss fights to exploration, from platforming to puzzles, from chase sequences to stealth sections, Owlboy is never afraid to switch things up, and is constantly and delightfully surprising."

The thing that is most commonly associated with Owlboy, though, is its visuals, and its easy to see why. Indie games with a pixel art style are not hard to come by these days, but while most of them only use such visuals more for nostalgia than for actual artistic reasons, the visual palette in Owlboy is vivid and beautiful and crammed full of details. While in close quarter environments and interiors the camera closes in to focus on the pixels in the pixel art, in the larger, more open areas, the game pulls away for a more sweeping view that shows the art style and the visuals in all their splendour. From the clouds to the trees to the cliffs, everything in Owlboy looks gorgeous.

Owlboy is a game that excels in multiple areas. It’s gameplay loop is constantly entertaining and always keeps the player engaged with a consistent stream fresh new mechanics and gameplay variety; it’s narrative is excellent written and extremely engaging, thanks to an excellent cast of characters; it’s visuals are beautiful and thoroughly detailed at the same time. It’s not, of course, without its flaws- for instance, there some a few bugs in here, one of which forced me to restart the game on one occasion. As a whole, though, it’s surprising to see just how well made and how accomplished Owlboy is in so many ways.

This game was reviewed on the Nintendo Switch.

Owlboy is one of the most critically acclaimed platformers of the last few years. Developed over the course of ten years, the game launched on PC in 2016, and received rave acclaim. It’s also getting a console release at last next week, releasing on Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch.

But if you would rather own a physical copy of the game, then the good news is you will get the chance to do so- at least, if you are on the PS4 and Nintendo Switch. Because developer D-Pad Studios and publisher Soedesco announced today that the game will be getting a physical release on those platforms.

In a statement, Soedesco expressed excitement at the prospect of Owlboy‘s physical release on Switch, since this actually marks the first physical Switch game from them. “We’ve had to keep quiet about this for some time, but now I can finally announce our first physical Switch game! Owlboy is a really great title to start off our Switch line-up with, but we’ve certainly got more coming up,” they said.

If you want the physical release of the game, you don’t have to wait for long, because Owlboy will be out physically on Nintendo Switch and PS4 on May 29; if you don’t want to wait, you can get it on PC now, and on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PS4 starting next week.

Duke Nukem Forever

Duke Nukem Forever was in the works since 1996. 3D Realms would infamously throw the “when it’s done” line while hopping from one engine to the next. After a conflict with publisher Take Two Interactive, 3D Realms eventually went bankrupt. The project didn’t die – it’s rights were eventually acquired by Gearbox Software and Duke Nukem Forever released in 2011. Surprise, surprise but it was mostly mediocre. And don’t worry – this isn’t the last time we’ll mention the Borderlands developer.

D-Pad Studio’s critically acclaimed Owlboy is finally coming to consoles on February 13th. The developer announced on Twitter that the Xbox One, PS4 and Nintendo Switch versions would be available in just a few weeks via respective digital store fronts. A physical edition is expected “to be announced”.

Owlboy follows the story of Otus, an Owl belonging to a revered race, as he journeys through the skies of a splintered floating continent. When a band of sky pirates attack his hometown and threaten the world, it’s up to Otus and his friends to stop them. Of course, things are never so simple and they’re quickly caught up in a plot that involves the world’s history, the truth about the Owls and much more.

Currently available on Steam, Owlboy received our award for the Best Platformer of 2016 along with nominations for Best Story and Best Indie Game. If you haven’t played it yet and appreciate old-school Metroidvania-style platformers with a lot of heart, then it’s definitely worth checking out.

Are you ready? Owlboy's console release is right around the corner and we can't wait! February 13th! https://t.co/M1LTAvc7lv #NintendoSwitch #PS4 #XboxOne pic.twitter.com/uhGC3UoAFi

— D-Pad | Savant – Ascent REMIX | OUT NOW (@DPadStudio) January 22, 2018

Another lovable indie platformer that’s finally available on Steam? That’s right except D-Pad Studio’s Owlboy is more than just a very good looking platformer that does a few things differently – it’s pretty much a labour of love. Check out the launch trailer below.

Owlboy sees you playing as Otus, a member of the Owls who must save his village from pirates. Otus travels through a magical world in the skies, meeting various characters. Interestingly, Otus himself is in charge of the flying but can pick up various NPCs to perform different functions like shooting enemies. Owlboy has essentially been in development since 2007 but it looks none the worse for wear despite the long cycle.

Owlboy can be purchased on Steam for PC here and it’s garnered a good amount of critical acclaim already. What are your thoughts on the game? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more information.