In the past we have seen platformers come in all shapes and sizes, the leader in this field for me is Ori and the Blind forest, and the bar has been set very high for Aaru’s awakening which feel at my feet this week. I was pretty excited to see if a game could match the heights set in recent months with some of the games that have come out.
The setting behind Aaru’s awakening is a brief short story as you begin; the game puts players in charge of Aaru, a mythical creature with two unique abilities teleportation and charging. He uses these abilities as he travels through the dangerous world of Lumenox to defeat an evil entity. Every situation and level which you are faced with, those 2 abilities are central to advancing.
And this is one of the good and bad things about Aaru’s awakening; it has its limitations but also makes good use of the abilities when the developers have designed certain levels. However only having two abilities using the same techniques over and over again becomes very limiting in what you can achieve. In reality I think the levels are quite short because of this reason, you complete a level in around 2-3 minutes.
Each section of the map consists of 4 levels with one boss level, all need to be completed to advance to the next section. The boss levels comprise all of the difficulties and enemies which you have encountered from that particular section and mould it all into one. Credit to the development team here because I was very sceptical of the smaller levels, however the boss levels are an excellent test and really are well made and well thought out.
The main boss missions which form the basis of advancement into the next zone show off everything that Aaru has to offer. Timing is paramount, there is no skill really to completing the game and there is hardly an element of puzzle solving even if the game attempts to implement one. Controls are frustrating at times and aren’t one of the games high points. Often when playing Aaru is quite erratic in the way he moves and thus it becomes extremely frustrating when you attempt to get the timing right. With this though as always presents a sense of achievement.
Graphically for a 2D Platformer it isn’t going to fly of the shelves because of this however some of the artwork is quite nifty, the enemies which act to slow you down are simply drawn with little effort in the originality section but they do the job. The cut scenes which are reasonably long for a game like this are simple comic book style frames, which an actor narrates over the top. Monotone is the best word to describe this in a nutshell. It really lets down what could make the game reasonably interesting because the concept is solid.
Aaru’s Awakening as mentioned before features heavily the use of time. It’s key to advancing in the game. Get it right and the levels become a breeze, get it wrong and it becomes a game of trial and error which can take much long than the 2-3 min spec. The developers have integrated a medal system into this as well as a global leader board, however what is clearly an attempt to add some replay-ability to a game which has little to none, it falls sort of what the expectation may well have been.
When actually using the game and progressing through at first the map is not particularly clear, some of the colour schemes can make it hard to see what has been selected and the map in general isn’t particularly well set out, although I do like the idea. You work your way around the globe which is centralised completing 4 mini levels before the main boss level which needs to be completed in order to advance to the next section. Simple as really.
For other games on the market such as Ori and the Blind forest, Aaru’s awakening has some way to go to meet the standards set by some of the market leaders. It has its own unique style though which will appeal to fans of this genre especially those heavily interested in it. However for the casual gamer, Aaru’s awakening can become a major chore at times and really detract from any fun.
Its not so friendly controls and its unwelcoming story telling can put players off and it did to me at first, seem a little off putting. At the start I found the levels too easy and flying through them, it took a mere 10 minutes to get through the first level. Most of that time was spent in the main boss level. Once things got harder the game really became an effort to play rather than something I actually enjoyed doing. Finding small glitches and the way Aaru tended to fly in every direction without actually moving the thumbstick was the killer for me.
When it’s all said and done though you have to remember what Aaru’s Awakening is, a simple 2D platformer. For what its worth it’s a decent little pick up and play but it’s clunky controls, monotone storylines and frustrating set ups will put most off. The lack of a true replay ability value as well won’t have me rushing back to save the world again any time soon.
Thanks once again to XCN for allowing me to review this game.