Oniken Demo

Back when video games used only a handful of colors to depict everything from elves and magic swords, to post-apocalyptic landscapes scoured by robots, things seemed to head for more of the same thing. However, once computers and consoles got better, the 3D revolution happened and everything took the realism path out of the 8-bit world.

Oniken is an arcade platformer that may look like it could be contemporary with Sonic, but it is actually only a couple of years old. Instead, it chose the retro style to bring back some of the atmosphere from the NES days and provide the players with a challenge, one that’s not as easy to beat as modern video games usually are nowadays.

The story talks about a post-apocalyptic world ruled by an oppressive organization called Oniken, who are keeping the poor from ever recovering and rebuild their lives. Naturally, there’s a resistance going, one that aims to fight against the self-established government and bring down the oppressors. As usual, all of this needs to be achieved by one man, who in this case happens to be Zaku, a mercenary ninja with a deadly sword.

The first thing you need to know before jumping into the game is that you are going to die a lot and maybe even require some new furniture around the house. However, regardless of how difficult the situation gets, the game is always fair, in the sense that you do not need luck in order to beat a certain section. Not only that, but the controls are also incredibly smooth even on the keyboard, so you shouldn’t have any problems with them.

As far as the visual chapter is concerned, the 8-bit graphics are done right for a change, which means that they really bring back memories, if you have any previous experience with the genre from back in the day. Even so, the art is nice enough to impress gamers who haven’t made any contact with old NES titles, despite the lack of a rich color palette.

In the end, Oniken is definitely a good choice for anyone that’s in the mood for a difficult, yet fun and addictive platformer. Given the fact that it has ninjas, robots, post-apocalyptic environments, and huge monsters, there are very few reasons not to give this a try as soon as possible.