Pseudoregalia (2023)

I love the suite of movement mechanics, but the pacing is off. The first part of the game is a slog because you lack any of the fun options and the last segment is too short to really allow you to play around with all the cool things you can do. That middle section where you have enough fun options to make exploration interesting and creative is a lot of fun, but it ends anticlimactically.

Also, combat sucks. I hate that in a game with movement this good the average enemy encounter involves just standing next to it and mashing the attack button.

Stumbled upon this N64-style 3D platformer, I really enjoyed it! Pairing the low-poly visuals and level design ethos of early 3D games with modern camera control and analog movement feels excellent, but it's got some rough edges that make it hard to recommend.

You play as Sybil, someone's furry OC who has studiously improved on all of Mario's best moves. She's got backflips, sideflips, highjumps, and longjumps aplenty; they're all super fun to use and the levels constantly push you to experiment with them in new ways. She's got a unique twist on Mario's walljump that's kind of a nightmare if you don't switch over to a Bumper Jumper setup for better camera control, but reveals itself to be pretty nifty thereafter. And she's also got a few secret jumps that add even more depth to her moveset for folks willing to dig around.

Pseudoregalia has an open progression and bills itself as a metroidvania, but to me its world structure feels more like the freeform chaos of early King's Field. Rather than guide players through a few rooms at a time like most Metroids, the game throws you into a tangle of like 15+ rooms immediately following the tutorial and tasks you to keep up, with no map and no clear insight into your overarching goals. Additionally, most rooms in the opening hours look nigh-identical and loop back around on each other in tricky ways, so you're practically guaranteed to get lost at least a couple times. True to the spirit of early 3D games, there's zero attempt to make the game's world comprehensible or in any way user-friendly, which I personally dug but will likely turn off a lot of players.

If you don't mind a bit of wandering though, there's lots of choice platforming to be had here. And apparently the devs have another game coming out soon that's got shinesparking in it!