Zapling Bygone, what a game. This really flew under my radar at first, because it initially didn’t click with me, so I shelved it. I decided to give it another fair shake, and I am so pleasantly surprised!

Beautiful dark pixel art, with a body horror / cosmic horror / sci-fi tone. Really fluid character movement, interesting lore, and atmospheric music. The level design is full of secrets (entire areas!) and has some really great rooms.

Couple complaints on the map - it doesn’t let you zoom in enough, which just feels unnecessary. It’s really hard to tell where you are at times. Zero secret finding assistance at any point in the game as well (my pet peeve).

My other little complaint is the controls are slightly unresponsive and lag at times- the double jump especially.

Mostly, this has everything I love in the genre with a uniquely dark tone and personality. It is really underrated and would definitely be in my top 5 Metroidvanias of last year.