Nobody would blame you for having had your fill of sidescrolling, procedurally generated platforming roguelikes, but Crystal Catacombs might be worth a curious glance before you swear off the sub-sub-genre forever. For one thing, it's gorgeous, employing tiny yet detailed and colourful (but not garishly so) pixel art to bring its neon cavey world to life. It's a slightly different breed of game to something like Spelunky - the physics are nowhere near as delightfully precise - but you should find something to enjoy here if you traversed your way through Super Metroid or Symphony of the Night back in the day. Details and demo link after the break.
I've played the demo - you can also play the online demo here - and I have to say, I'm not a fan of the floaty jump physics and reliance on wall-jumping. I did eventually get somewhat used to it, because I find the game's shimmering, characterful art design and exploration focus so appealing, but be aware going in that it's not quite as slickly engineered as other platformers of this ilk.
Here are some of the things you can expect, if you decide that Crystal Catacombs is worthy of your $10: procedurally generated levels, an RPG-style character upgrade system, various artifacts to augment your character with, bosses, jungles, caves, the colour purple, and the neat ability to zoom in and out for a better view. I suspect the following trailer will pique your interest - it certainly did mine.
Crystal Catacombs is out now. You can vote for it over on Steam Greenlight if you like.
Cheers, RPS .
