Missileman Origins Demo

Although old platformers are regarded as simple nowadays, the truth is that there’s a lot more to them than it would appear at first. While it’s true that most of your job is to jump around and avoid the gaps or the spikes that litter the stages, the mechanics are paramount to a good platformer, because there’s nothing more frustrating than not being able to finish a level because of badly designed controls or rigid gameplay.

Missileman Origins is not an old game, but it tries to bring back some of the same elements found in classic titles released a few decades ago. It features familiar graphics and just as much frustration as any good platformer, yet the frustration comes from the actual difficulty, not the mechanics. As such, you should be able to have fun with it, at least if you are a fan of the genre.

The story is not going to twist any brains, mainly because it’s as simple and straightforward as it gets. In essence, Missileman falls through a trapdoor and into a crazy world filled with robots and all sorts of dangers. There’s not much emphasis on the plot, so you shouldn't try to follow character arcs or anything like that, but this is not a very important component in the genre anyway.

Most of your time is spent trying to get to the other side of a level, while losing as little health as possible along the way. You can get hurt by touching enemies and traps, or even die instantly by falling into a pit. Granted, timing is a very important element, because you can sprint through entire sections if you take a moment to analyze how everything is moving. The sad part is that you only see a small portion of the way ahead.

Even if the mechanics are quite tight and simple to learn, it must be mentioned that the game is still pretty rugged in this state. The most obvious minus is the level design, because almost everything looks the same for long periods of time. Sidescrolling backgrounds and minimal level design saved memory and processing power back in the day, but there’s not much need for it now, especially in a retro game.

Even if it has its flaws, Missileman Origins is, after all, an in-development indie production, which awards it more leniency. On the other hand, it would still be nice to see the game polished some more in the future, especially if it’s to be released on Steam.

Note: You can support the developers by participating in their Kickstarter campaign.