Aborigenus

Fantasy worlds are not easy to create, which is why most writers prefer to use already existing lore and modify it to fit their needs. Hence, it’s no wonder that you often feel like you are reading the same thing over and over again. On the other hand, at least the characters are always different, even if sometimes their arcs resemble those of more famous characters.

Aborigenus is a retro platformer that challenges you to overcome a variety of obstacles while trying to save the world from evil. As you can probably already sense, the premise is far from original, but at least the setting is somewhat unique, and you also get to put your skills to the test. Even so, the repetitive environments and the buggy combat can be pretty annoying most of the time.

To begin with, the action takes place on some sort of flying islands, which also happen to be under threat by some great evil. You play the role of a hero who takes it upon himself to save the world and everyone else by trying to stop this evil from achieving its plans. However, many smaller enemies stand between him and the villain, so a long journey awaits.

The fast-paced gameplay mechanics force you to act quickly and pay attention to everything around you, especially the enemies that try to catch you by surprise. Granted, they just patrol on fixed paths most of the time, but they are very fast and difficult to see, which makes it difficult to kill them. In fact, your character has a low attack speed anyway, which means that you are almost certainly getting hit.

Thankfully, you can make use of checkpoints to save your progress, even if they are not as numerous as they could have been. On top of that, the level design is very repetitive as well, making it difficult to tell whether you are making progress or not. The backgrounds change every now and again, but too much so, which can cause boredom to set in.

All things being equal, there are many things missing from Aborigenus, but at least it gets a few things right as well. Hence, the fast-paced mechanics are great if you like to challenge yourself, but the lack of level variety and the buggy combat make it difficult to stay positive for too long.