Batbarian: Testament of the Primordials
Developed by Unspeakable Pixels and published by DANGEN Entertainment, Batbarian: Testament of the Primordials is a fantastic new RPG-style metroidvania game, where you play as a Barbarian with a trusty Bat sidekick (hence the portmanteau title!). Right from the beginning, the humour was fantastic - and really let me know just how likely I would enjoy this game. You’re in a pitch-black dungeon, with nothing but your trusty bat, Pip, by your side. Thankfully, Pip glows - and so helps to light the way as you explore through the dungeon and trek back and forth to figure out where to go.
As well as being your guiding light, Pip has some other useful features - she’s a hungry wee beast, and will chase any fruit you toss, temporarily lighting the way. I played this mostly in handheld mode at first, and due to the dreaded Joycon drift, I found aiming your throws (be they fruit or rocks) to be unbelievably frustrating. So if you are looking to play this as a handheld title, heads up - you may want to be sure you are using drift-free Joycons, or just play it in docked mode with a Pro Controller instead. Without suffering from the drifting issues (which are purely a hardware issue, and bear no reflection on the game itself), tossing the fruit felt natural and really intuitive as Pip lights the path ahead of you. Discovering hidden traps or secret areas through Pip’s light is always great, and really immerses you in the game with trying to avoid an early grave. As well as the base fruit (which is thankfully unlimited in supply), you can also toss rocks to activate levers, and as you progress other types of fruit become available - albeit in shorter supply - that will make Pip stick around in the tossed area for longer or deal damage to enemies, etc.
Done in a gloomy, atmospheric, pixel-art style, locations are well designed and sufficiently creepy. The low lighting of the dungeons would normally be quite frustrating, but in the context of the game and your abilities, it is fantastic. The darkness obscures just enough to be a threat in itself, hiding traps and enemies until it’s sometimes too late. You’ll frequently catch just a glimpse of an enemy or other shadowy figure in the darkness, creeping yourself out. Enemy designs are well varied, and a Bestiary is available within the menu to show you all of the creatures you’ve come across previously. The music consists of a few looping tracks that give off a very optimistic vibe. They’re all super catchy and work well with both the humour and the overall story unfolding before you.
Humour is a big part of Batbarian, and its something that has been implemented flawlessly. It’s hard to find games that make fun of all the usual tropes without it coming across as false - Batbarian has a lot of moments where it will make little jokes that catch you off guard, and it really sells itself well. One in particular, when I came across a character who took offence to something I said and it initiated what appeared to be a boss fight before making a joke instead upon sniffing out my gold. It felt genuinely comical, and definitely tricked me at first!
Finding map fragments, and diary entries from those who have been here before you will help to piece together what’s going on in this underground world - and combined with the game’s events being retold from the protagonist’s point of view, with funny little quips when they die too often - will keep you immersed in the story. Be sure to always read through all of the books and notes you find dotted throughout, as they often hold important info to guide you on your quest - and you’ll also find plenty of secret areas with stat increases and various other upgrades that will benefit you. Levelling up also improves your playthrough, with a spinning wheel to see what stats will be increased as a reward.
Controls are nice and easy to get the hang of, with everything clearly explained to you - and throwable items always shown on screen. The mechanics of Pip’s light helping to guide the way, as well as triggering certain changes in the world (such as activating platforms, etc.) when exposing a crystal to the light makes for an entertaining time, and encourages you to always keep an eye out for alternate routes and new ways of getting through the vast dungeon.
Priced at £15.09 on the Nintendo eShop, I’d highly recommend checking it out - especially if you’re a fan of metroidvanias. In both our playthroughs, we never experienced much in the way of issues apart from some frame rate drops whenever there was a lot of action on screen (such as lots of enemies firing projectiles at once) - but this was usually dealt with pretty quickly after defeating them. Overall, it was an extremely fun game to play, with over 20 hours of content to keep you busy (and multiple endings to unlock!) - it’s one that kept me engaged throughout. I can’t wait to see what Unspeakable Pixels brings out next.
In the end, we decided to give Batbarian: Testament of the Primordials the Collecting Asylum rating of 9/10.
Have you played Batbarian yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to DANGEN Entertainment for the Batbarian: Testament of the Primordials Nintendo Switch review code!
