Comit the Astrodian Demo

Platformers are still going strong, even after so many decades of games released on every imaginable console. The underlying concept remains the same, but people manage to come up with new ideas when it comes to gameplay mechanics, story and atmosphere. On the other hand, repetition is still a plague of the genre, so it still takes a bit of talent to avoid boring the players.

Comit the Astrodian is a 2D platformer in which you have to make it to the end of each level alive and avoid all sorts of traps and enemies along the way. There’s not much more to it than that, but as long as the level design is top notch and the mechanics are smooth, it shouldn’t be a problem. This is not necessarily the case here, but the overall quality is pretty decent.

There’s not much of a story to keep track of, since nothing is really explained. You play as a character by the name of Comit, and it’s obvious that he must save the world or something like that. Obviously, the road is littered with monsters and annoying traps that take a fair bit of concentration in order to avoid. Your character has a limited number of lives he can use, but you can collect stars and win more lives.

Although the gameplay is pretty much dead on for a retro platformer, it must be mentioned that there are a few inconveniences that make it difficult to enjoy yourself. As such, the jumping system is a bit slow and imprecise, although you rarely happen to fall because of it. The combat mechanics are pretty rough as well, although these can probably be fixed until the full game is released.

The graphics are not bad at all, at least not if you are comfortable with the retro visual style and simple animations. On the other hand, the low resolution and pixelated characters wouldn’t be a problem, but the fact that almost every level looks the same is a bit annoying. There are multiple locations to visit in the full game, however, but even so, a bit of variety wouldn’t hurt.

Even if it has its flaws, Comit the Astrodian should be more than able to trigger your nostalgia and make you forget about the awkward jumping mechanics and the repetitive level design. Hence, you can support the developer by voting for the game on Steam Greenlight.