This title is an outstanding indie metroidvania that manages to feel both nostalgic and refreshingly original. Developed almost entirely by a single person, it’s a remarkable achievement in atmosphere, design, and storytelling. The MC is called Trace, a scientist who wakes up in a strange, hostile alien world after a lab accident. From the opening moments, Axiom Verge establishes a haunting tone through its glitchy visuals, cryptic dialogue, and droning synth OST. One of it's standouts to me is it's OST, not just because I'm biased towards Synth music in general, but because it's OST is at the same level of giants such as Metroid. The environments, industrial ruins, pulsing organic tunnels, and machine-infested caverns.

The game’s world design is clearly inspired by Super Metroid, but it is more surreal and experimental, blending biotech horror with a subtle undercurrent of existential dread. The gameplay revolves around exploration and gradual empowerment. Every new weapon or gadget, like the Address Disruptor, which “glitches” enemies and terrain to reveal secrets, adds layers of discovery. Combat feels deliberate, and though enemy variety can be repetitive, the sheer number of weapons (over 20) keeps things interesting. The boss battles are large, tense encounters that demand precision and pattern recognition.

One of it's strongest traits is how it uses its retro aesthetic to enhance its identity rather than merely imitate old games. The visual “glitches” are not just stylistic, they’re part of the world and narrative, blurring the line between game and code. The story, told through scattered terminals and brief dialogue, encourages interpretation, leaving you to piece together its larger mysteries. And this is one of my favorite aspects of this title, since I'm inclined to like this kind of approach to story-telling, so if you are like me, this is one of the best experiences you can have when it comes to expanded lore beyond in-game events.

If there’s one drawback, it’s that navigation can sometimes feel cumbersome, especially without a fast-travel system, similar to the experience you'll face if you play the early, and less mature, Metroid implementations. Still, the sense of exploration and discovery is rarely lost. In summary, this game is an atmospheric, imaginative, and deeply crafted tribute to the 16-bit era. It’s a testament to what one creator can achieve, an essential experience for fans of exploration-driven action games. This is definitely one of the best games that I've played, not just for it's genre, but in general, especially because the story is the perfect fit for me, with alternative universes, identity and even time travel, but I won't spoil anything not to ruin any experiences. It is an absolute must-play if you like Metroidvanias to any extent.

I quite enjoyed this game. It wasn’t perfect but it was fun. It seems to me that a game of this difficulty is the Souls-like for me. Distances between saves and some punishing stretches challenged me just the right amount. The bosses were a bit too easy but the bosses aren’t as significant as a traditional platformer. Instead, the challenges are more about getting to/unlocking the next area of the level. The mechanic of using the drone to get into certain spaces was well done. The little mini gauntlets of having to get by a series of enemies with only your wimpy little drone were some of the most challenging bits.

What truly surprised me about this game was the story. Fair or not, my limited experience with platformers and metroidvanias from my youth till the present is that gameplay is the focus and story is usually limited and somewhat simple. This game’s story is very interesting, in a technobabbley sci-fi way but also in how the truth of who the actors are unfolds. I was second guessing if I was dealing with an the entire way through so I must have been immersed.

Which isn’t to say gameplay isn’t a prominent part of this game. Timing your jumps and teleports, using the right weapon, finding ways to kills enemies, and uncovering secrets hidden inside of walls are most of what you’ll be doing.

The music is also quite good. It’s incredible to imagine that one person not only created the entire game himself but, using an entirely different skill set, made the music to go with it.

Also, I just read about Thomas Happ’s son as I was near to finishing the game. That makes me want to actually buy a game from Epic Gamestore, where Axiom Verge is exclusively available on PC, for the first time just to support him. This was a game I could share with my son and I certainly can feel for Happ as a father.

I've never played the original Metroid, but I imagine that Axiom Verge is a pretty good homage to it. I played it on the Switch, it took me 12 hours to complete, I got 93% map completion, and 71% item completion. I'm not especially good at platformers and on normal I found it relatively challenging.

The game's story is relatively interesting you play a scientist who is transported to a mysterious other world in a science experiment gone wrong. Things inexplicably want to kill you and you are contacted by a disembodied voice, you take the "Axiom Disruptor" and go. Without going into detail the story is fairly interesting but slightly sparse for my liking. What the game does very well in my opinion is atmosphere, the world and creatures look interesting even with the games gigeresque 8-bit to 16-bit art style. The game's music is very cool and varied, one particularly memorable track reminds me of the Farscape main theme.

The gameplay is fairly simple Metroid fare. You can run, jump, crouch, and fire your gun 8 different directions. As you progress through the game you unlock a variety of guns and mobility options. There is a lot of interesting guns even if it feels like at least half of them aren't very useful. The enemy variety is pretty good though the games later enemies get so annoying it feels better to circumvent then fight them. The game also features bosses but provided you've picked up enough power-ups none of them are too challenging.

Like in any Metroidvania the mobility options unlock previously inaccessible areas of the map. This actually contributes to one of the worse aspects of the game. The platforming didn't work for me. Perhaps its because I played it on the Switch, though at one point I switched to the pro controller and didn't seem better. The controls are awkward and using most of the mobility powers didn't feel natural to me. Kind of like the opposite of Hollow Knight. The various mobility options and obstacle bypasses are creative though.

Overall its a solid if simple Metroidvania with a cool style. The game doesn't go on too long but it did feel like it dragged on in places. While I had mixed feelings about it, I liked it enough to give Axiom Verge 2 a try in the future.

Took me 6 years to come back to this one after my initial attempt, but I can finally say it's done. I feel very split on this one.

On the one hand, it's easy to tell from the very start that a lot of passion for the old Metroid games went into Axiom Verge. So much so that even the first room or two as well as the save point rooms nearly felt like block for block copies of those in Samus's first adventure back on the NES. For a while I wasn't sure even if the game would deviate much from its source material in terms of powerups and general gameplay. Thankfully it did, because the first Metroid was never my cup of tea. The whole game definitely does retain the Super Metroid feel though, which is pretty cool.

On the other hand, around nearly every corner I found frustration and boring enemies. The environments didn't seem to do much to stand out from each other and the typical backtracking present in any metroidvania was made painful by the hordes of spammy enemies and few early game mobility options. I don't remember when exactly it was that I realized nearly every enemy that actually comes after you does so by sitting on top of you and jumping/flying back and forth, making it incredibly irritating to land shots on them. Most bosses had the opposite issue. They would usually just sit there as I blasted them full of laser energy from the safe spot I found as soon as I walked into the room.

And while this didn't make for the most riveting experience, I would have gladly taken it over the switch-up in difficulty I found in the final areas of the game. Enemies became both tanky and fast enough that I eventually decided it wasn't worth fighting them at all.

The irritation I felt in dealing with enemies was only multiplied by the awful controls for the dash ability which you first get fairly early on. For some reason in order to do a quick little dash you're made to double tap the left joystick in the direction you want to go. This might have been fine in other types of games, but in a platformer like this, it ruined my ability to enjoy the exploration. It's not easy to deliberately double tap a direction on a joystick when you're moving it around to dodge enemies and navigate the obstacles in your path. I found that when I wanted to use it, it often took multiple tries to hit the direction fast enough for it to actually work, and when I didn't want to use it, it would happen all the time! Time and time again, I would try to avoid an enemy only to dash directly into them, taking unnecessary damage. In fact, it became so frustrating to deal with the late game enemies that I actually turned off the game and considered uninstalling briefly, despite knowing I must be nearly at the end. I probably wouldn't have finished it if I hadn't looked up a walkthrough and seen that I was a couple rooms away from the final boss anyway, so I might as well stick it out.

However, though this is a lot of negative stuff I'm pointing out, I still would say this is worth playing for anyone who enjoys metroidvanias. The world has a very strong atmosphere to it as you explore and there's a solid plot. The music is also a jam in most areas, which is a big plus.

You know, for a Super Metroid clone, Axiom Verge really has something going for it. Sure, the game gets Fez-like cryptic in some areas and the game's story feels like a pile of mumbo-jumbo (appreciate the male fanservice with Justin Bailey, though), but Axiom Verge is a strong contender for concentrated nonlinear exploration and progression.

Consisting of (an annoyingly typical protagonist) on a strange alien world, the player is tasked with exploring and finding whatever comes onto their singular gun for taking out enemies and exploring the entirety of that world. Players will feel most at home with the first and most basic weapon, but have a variety of weapons to search about that produce good strategy for enemies in a pinch, such as lasers that pierce through enemies and a binary-tree-esque laser.

As for the theme of the game, glitching and corruption takes a large part, so an address disruptor tool can be used to )experiment and have fun on enemies as well as discover new and hidden areas. Apart from that, however, it's pretty basic Metroidvania fare; fans of the genre will fall in love, but it's definitely a letter to the past and not a step forward.

The game can get a bit tough near the end, but plenty of hidden goodies are strewn about; if you have a keen eye for secrets in games or crack open a map, you'll be powerful enough in no-time. The game also features settings for speedruns and incorporates what feels like tricks and hacks to allow faster completion of its own game (infinite drone teleport jump, yes). The game itself is also gorgeous, its best strength with a colorful tiled world that can only be described as a much colorful Giger-esque planet.

Overall, Axiom Verge is a short and concentrated ride, and those willing to drill and disrupt every nook and cranny will not be disappointed. It won't blow away, but it does indeed satiate.