I beat a game!!!

For the first time in a long time, I actually finished a game. Thanks to @tylerisrandom, I played this little gem of a game.

It's a fairly by the numbers metroidvania. There's not much in the way of story. All of the areas are pretty similar and there's not a huge variety of enemies. It gets 4 stars from me because it controls amazingly and it has a great map. It also just looks really nice. I never felt lost, and generally knew where I needed to go next. Nothing was terribly difficult. Some of the bosses took a few tries, but nothing made me want to throw the controller.

It plays perfectly on the Steam Deck, and it's not overly long. I played in 20 minute chunks before bed over maybe a month or so. My in game clock said I finished in about 7 hours 30 minutes.

I don't really know how to write reviews. Fans of the genre will like this game. It's a good game. The end.

Wow, this took me by surprise! Islets is a concise but tightly controlled and elegantly designed metroidvania, astoundingly crafted almost entirely by one person. The animation and environments are rich and detailed, the writing is charming, the map is fun and well-paced, and the combat and boss battles are challenging but approachable and fair.

Honestly, I think I might have overlooked this one due to the blank stare of the protagonist in the key art… there's something a little unexciting or even generic about it? But that's not the vibe of the game at all.

For my fellow Steam Deck users, Islets is listed as "unsupported," but the only issues I found were needing to manually set my resolution (quit and start again to apply) and some minor graphical glitches taking place in the unused space above and below the game's 16:9 presentation.

What a fantastic little game. While it lacks the challenge and high-precision combat of Hollow Knight, I enjoyed it overall much more. It's still a good challenge, and otherwise improves on Hollow Knight (albeit while ripping it off shamelessly) by:

• Having inviting, engaging dialogue
• Providing the player with a better sense of direction
• Way less backtracking

If you're into 10-30 attempt boss battles, this will come up a little light, but even on Normal mode (there is a hard), I still died a number of times (maybe 20-25 times over the 8:30 it took to beat the game.)

I can't recommend Islets highly enough.

Islets is a short but charming Metroidvania. You play a mouse on a quest to reconnect a series of sky islands. The game is a standard Metroidvania-like Platformer, with occasional bullet-hell style fights.

The game isn't too difficult, the platforming is manageable and the average boss fight shouldn't take more than a few attempts each. The game takes about six to twelve hours to beat. So if you're looking a relaxing Metroidvania that doesn't overstay it's welcome give Islets a try.

Playtime: 15 minutes

Played: 2025

Review

I don't like backtrackvania games but wanted to give this a try. It didn't last long, but i did get to enjoy the insanity of the controls. By default, S is jump and Space is attack. Just... what?

After fixing that i got to the first boss and died a few times because 'attack' doesn't just 'attack', it also makes you lunge forward. That's honestly a dealbreaker for me.

Really cute and fun little metroidvania. Nothing too earth-shattering, but it follows the formula well and is overall a good time.

The combat is a bit simple, and I'm not a fan of some boss fights, since they tended to overstay their welcome (on hard mode anyway). Still, I always wanted to keep going and play more, so that's always a good sign.