To compensate for the added demands of its faster pacing, Downwell is more forgiving about health. On contact with a wall, jump and move in the direction away from the wall. To wall jump you need to have full gun boot charge. With practice, you’ll even be able to wall jump, a useful trick for avoiding enemies and extending jump combos. On a good run, caught up in the flow of jumping on enemies, avoiding traps, and maneuvering midair, you’ll feel like an actual goddamn ninja. There are exhilarating and panicked moments when you find yourself midair and out of gun boot charge, falling fast and unable to levitate while desperately looking for a safe place to land.Įffectively, Downwell eschews the exploratory flavor of Spelunky for nonstop action. In Downwell, you’re trapped in one narrow chamber, and as such the downward push of gravity is relentless. Because Spelunky levels are arranged as a large square, that game requires as much lateral movement as it does vertical movement. Gravity Wellįirst and foremost, Downwell is faster and more frenetic than Spelunky. What interests me most, however, are the ways in which Downwell ultimately deviates from and, in some regards, improves on Spelunky’s now-familiar formula. It’s the kind of game in which you learn by dying repeatedly and go on to conquer through practice, perseverance and nimble fingers. You start with only four health, so every mistake you make is a Big Deal. Like Spelunky, you collect currency, in this case gems, that can be used to buy power-ups at randomly placed shops.Īnd like Spelunky, the game is unforgiving. Like Spelunky, the level geometry and enemy placement is procedurally generated each playthrough. Like Spelunky, Downwell consists of four main worlds and a final boss. "I was super into Spelunky at the time and I wished there was a game like that on smartphones," Ojiro told me. Spelunky is an inevitable comparison here, and indeed Downwell was directly influenced by it. It’s also faster-paced and more demanding than either of those two. The gun boots are the key element here, as they let you attack enemies, destroy blocks and maneuver in air.įor fun, you can call the game " Shooty Boots." It plays kind of like Cave Story, but is procedurally generated à la Spelunky. You can jump and, if you press the jump button again in midair, your gun boots fire downwards. You navigate your way down a deep well, avoiding enemies and other traps. Shooty Bootsĭownwell is a brutal roguelike shooter rendered in a minimal-color retro style. This is not an official review, and I cannot speak to the game experience on other platforms. I’ve also only played Downwell on my iPhone 6. You should follow both of them on Twitter. Some quick notes: Some of the analysis below draws from conversations I’ve had with Ojiro himself, and also with game designer and fellow beta tester and game designer Zach Gage. Spoilers ahead! If you want to discover Downwell for yourself, you should play it before reading on. God is in the detail, and it’s precisely those details that make Downwell so rewarding. I am totally hooked.Īnd gosh, there is so much to talk about: how this is Ojiro’s first major game release, and how he’s only 23 years old the current state of indie development in Tokyo designing an unforgiving action game for smartphones and virtual buttons the game’s red-white-and-black color palette, which is both stylish and practical Ojiro’s adorable pixel art how indie heroes like Rami Ismail and Derek Yu are influencing a new generation of game designers around the world.īut for now I want to focus on the nitty-gritty workings of the underlying game system. At this point I play the game each and every day, setting my own "daily challenges" for myself. I’m fortunate enough to have been one of its beta testers, and I’ve been playing the game for most of this year. Downwell, which was designed and developed by Tokyo’s Ojiro Fumoto and published by Devolver, is the best game I’ve played in 2015.ĭownwell released to the public this week, on iOS and Steam.
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