Lunark [Xbox]
Developed by Canari Games, Lunark is a 2D cinematic platformer inspired by ‘90s games of the genre. Featuring an interesting sci-fi story of survival, Lunark takes place on a planet called Albaryne, 300 years after an event known as The Great Arrival. You play as Leo, a courier who, whilst retrieving a strange artifact for his boss, finds himself unintentionally caught up in the middle of something - and it doesn’t look good.
Playing like a faithful rendition of a ‘90s precision platformer, the controls felt fluid and fun, though at times felt extremely frustrating due to just how tight some areas are, requiring you to really focus to nail the methodical routine to progress. Some people will excel at this, but people going in blind - and not being prepared for the precision - might find this to be a tad offputting. Fans of the genre will love it, and once you get the hang of things, it feels great - you just might need to take your time with it. Combat is mostly done using your gun; there’s a slight melee attack when you’re in close quarters with an enemy, but for the most part you’ll be shooting everything. Your gun doesn’t use bullets, instead requiring energy; a few shots and you’ll have to wait on it recharging. Getting clever with your timing will often allow you to get an extra shot or two in before it burns out; and similarly, being smart about when to attack particular enemies can help you out further, since blowing them up will take out others nearby.
You have a limited number of hearts for health, but these can be restored using Healing Flowers, with red ones replenishing one heart, and golden, sparkly ones fully healing you. You can also carry a supply of Energy Shields, which can be deployed whilst standing still to protect you. These seem to be in fairly bountiful supply throughout the levels, hidden within breakable crates so you aren’t likely to run out too quickly. I consistently forgot to use them - probably to my own detriment - but didn’t find it to be too difficult getting through the game in its entirety without using a single one.
Enemies come in a few different forms, each with their own methods of attack. You’ve got your basic, little hovering ball-droids that are spit out of pods on the floor and security systems built into walls, and these take a few hits to destroy - though can’t cause you any harm if you keep them at a distance. There are humanoid enemies too, from Green droids that put up a bit more fight, firing at you from afar - and they take a good bit more to deal with - to scimitar-wielding enemies that need to be tired out in order to take any damage. Boss designs are limited, with only a couple throughout the full game, though the fights themselves utilise a decent bit of variety to keep things from feeling stale.
The chunky pixel art design is absolutely gorgeous, and everything from the level environments to the rotoscoped cutscene animations look wonderful. As you progress through the story, you will encounter a variety of different locations ranging from sparsely populated cities and train carriages to underground cave systems and penitentiaries. Each area has different puzzles to solve, and exploring can be fun - though the significant amount of backtracking at times does begin to grate, a little. The soundtrack throughout is fantastic, and really captures the futuristic, sci-fi themes well.
There are $hells that can be found throughout the world, though these are few and far between. You’d be forgiven for thinking they act like typical in-game currency, with a shop for you to spend them at; instead you can give them to a mysterious character called Hugg in batches of three for an extra heart, though you’ll need to locate him to do so - he’s a bit of a sneaky bugger, hiding in areas off the beaten path. Most of these $hells will trigger secret location achievements upon finding them, and finding 12 will allow you to fully upgrade your health (though there are a couple of spares, if you need them) - so it’s well worth taking the time to look around. It is manageable to get through the whole game without any health upgrades, but they make a huge difference as to how long you’ll go between deaths, since checkpoints and health flowers can be spread out quite far between. Likewise, there are gun upgrades too, which reduce the cooldown time and allow you to deal more damage, so keep your eyes peeled for these, too.
Needless to say, Lunark is a challenging game, and one that’s sure to cause a lot of cursing along the way - though it does still prove to be a highly enjoyable time. The story is interesting, and there’s a little bit of lore to be found along the way by chatting to NPCs and reading diary entries. It felt a lot of fun to play, and getting through each of the areas was a challenge at times, though you do come to learn the routes you need to take. I did come across an infuriating issue that had me stuck for a lengthy period right at the final stretch of the game; namely, a problem wherein pressing the jump button whilst running and jumping up to a ledge would lead me to do an extra jump upon pulling myself up - causing me to fall needlessly to my death repeatedly. This has however been addressed in a recent patch for PC, though a workaround for it on console is to simply not press jump, since holding up and the direction you’re running will suffice (but try telling that to my dumb muscle memory). Overall, Lunark is a wonderful adventure and despite my frustrations at certain points, I still had a great time with it and can appreciate how it achieves its goal to be a faithful, modern take on 90s 2D platformers. Available on Xbox for £16.74, I’d highly recommend everyone to give Lunark a go.
In the end, we decided to give Lunark the Collecting Asylum rating of 8.5/10.
Are you interested in Lunark? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to WayForward for the Lunark Xbox review code!
