LUNARK

At first glance, LUNARK appeared promising as a modern cinematic platformer. However, as I progressed through each stage, the experience increasingly felt like a derivative work heavily modeled on classics such as Another World and Flashback. The game borrows extensively from those titles, including character animations, enemy designs, environmental interactions (such as the foot scanner for opening doors), ally movements through vents, prison escape sequences, and vehicle sections. These elements are presented with minimal innovation, creating an impression of direct imitation rather than inspired homage. While the game is offered at a discounted price of $4.99, I cannot recommend it and refunded it myself. The lack of originality undermines its value, and I will not support titles that (in my opinion) directly imitates established classic works of art.

Early level 3: "Hey, you can't make some long jumps, try climbing down and back up!" Player: "Thanks I've learned that now." Late level 3: "F-you buddy, you were tricked by actually following what I taught you? Now the only way to get all those shiny items I taunted you with is to REPLAY THE ENTIRE LEVEL!" Also: "Oh and if you didn't have a chance to explore, we aren't letting you go back unless you make a whole new save file. Sucks to be you!' Thanks game. Thanks. For proving that you deserve a downvote and for me to uninstall immediately so I don't have to put up with disrespecting the player.

Reasonably fun, short game, would recommend at a low price. As other reviewers say, it's a bit like Another World / Flashback, or perhaps actually more like the original Prince of Persia (1989), but in all cases more attuned to modern sensibilities, i.e. it's relatively easy. Story is fine. One weird thing that I could see people being critical of is, when you die you go back a couple of screens to a waypoint, but when you exit, it says all progress since the start of the level will be lost - levels are significantly further apart than waypoints. I don't know if it's true, because I always just exited after reaching a new level, but if it *is* true then that seems like an ugly decision, and if it's not true, it would be nice if it wasn't misleading about this. Also on the topic of level thresholds, it's a bit unpleasant that going between levels is a one-way operation and there's no indication that an exit is one of those transitions - sometimes you have a choice of two ways to go, one of which presumably leads to a collectible, the other to the end of level, and if you get unlucky you just lost all chance of getting that collectible short of starting again. Maybe I'm wrong about that and I missed collectibles earlier and they're not near level-exits at all, but still, I probably could have gone back and fully explored if I was warned about level transitions. Overall though this didn't detract from the experience - I got enough collectibles to have plenty of health and almost exclusively died to falling too far.

Lunark is nothing more or less than the perfect resurrection of the cinematic platformer; it is Flashback for the 21st century. Short and oh-so-very sweet.

A singular gem. It's inspired by flashback and those games but - I think it plays better, feels more coherent, and has more tight controls. The soundtrack is truly great and the setting and characters are nicely fleshed out. The fact that it's largely a 1-man team effort is remarkable and shows that the self-imposed very pixellated look was a great move to make it manageable.

best tutorial I've seen in my life. very strong vibes of prince persia in movement and flashback in visuals. looks amazing, plays amazing, quite complex gameplay even if slow-ish but for some stupid reason you can't save mid level.

플래시백 느낌 좋군요. 다만 도트가 튀어도 너무 튀는군요. 16비트 게임기 정도는 되었으면 좋았을텐데. 여튼 재미는 있네요^^ 그래서 한글 패치를 제작해 보았습니다. https://blog.naver.com/mirahusb/224236626665

The Cinematic platformer. Long dormant because, well, lots of 90s genres fell off. As per usual, indie developers come up and deliver the goods and the result here is Lunark; a game very much in the same vein as Flashback and Another World. While it is still slightly clunky, retaining the charms of the older era, it streamlines and refines a number of mechanics, which could be seen as better or worse depending on your point of view. As such, this is possibly the most accessible and playable cinematic platformer out there. [h1]Lights, Camera, Clumsy action![/h1] Just as the usual, defining genre is sometimes needed. The Cinematic platformer was a style of 2D platform game that stood out from the pack of the era with typically rotoscoped visuals (real people videoed which were painted over), meaning they tended to look a little more realistic than the Mario and Sonic inspired titles of the time. While this typically resulted in far more smooth movement, it also gave way to far more stilted and slow actions as the animations played out. This gave the games a more ponderous nature, where actions were dedicated to rather than jumped in and out from. Even walking was far more stiff with preset walk animations needing to play out before characters could stop. This led to a short lived, but well respected slew of titles such as the early Prince of Persia games, Flashback / Another World and the first two Oddworld titles. With the expansion of 3D visuals though, cinematic platformers faded into obscurity. This is where Lunak comes in. [h1]Suffering from Flashbacks in Another World[/h1] Lunark is more akin to Flashback than any other title of this style, though mainly through the combat revolving around using a handgun and the player having access to a personal shield device. And very, very detailed short cutscenes of the character picking things up or pressing buttons. Flashback really liked those! Generally though, it plays out like a typical game of this style, with somewhat still motion and odd jumping that may take a minute or two to adjust to. Despite it still feeling far stiffer than the average platformer, Lunark does smooth out the character motion and actions a good amount, meaning you don’t have to wait as long for the stiff animations to play out before other actions can be taken. General actions such as ducking, rolling and shooting are not as dedicated as the older titles. Where in Flashback you had to draw your weapon and consider specific stances before you could take an action, Lunark tends to make it a little easier to work with. Roll? Press the dedicated roll button. Shooting? Hit the shoot button and you draw your gun and just shoot and the character puts their firearm away a second later or when you start moving. This will be very intuitive for newer players to this game style, and can be seen as a welcome change. For some older, more strategic players this may seem uncomfortable, like something is missing. Your mileage may vary, but it is not likely something that will bother you come the late game and seeing how your character’s story plays out. [h1]Spin the yarn[/h1] Story is worth noting as that is usually one of the main draws of these types of games. There is plenty going on, with the main character being the protege of one of the major corporate heads of Lunark: a moon that was transported to a distant planet that acts as the corporate center point of this world. He sends you out on a mission to locate an artifact that requires your own innate abilities to activate. From here the tale twists and turns numerous times with various characters forming alliances and double crossing going on. Lunark is not exceptionally deep in this regard, but it does reflect Flashback well, in that it is the driving force that keeps you moving, sending you to numerous locations. [h1]Location location location[/h1] The story and gameplay tend to combine very well. Each of the game’s level hubs are well designed and are constantly changing things up. On one level you may be traversing an ancient ruin, pushing buttons to advance, then you could be escaping from a factory full of security systems. Then you end up running around a town area, trying to solve the locals’ issues before they will help you advance. These situations tend to play out as singe screen platform puzzles, where you either have to make precise jumps, work on timing between sections or making use of frequently introduced unique level systems, such as timed switches, security alarms etc. Lunark keeps things varied. [h1]Perfectly balanced, or as much as they can be[/h1] In this way, Lunark is possibly one of the best cinematic platformers out there. While the classics feel like they were making compromises, Lunark seems to go all in. It feels like the perfect combination of the style and other Amiga platformers of the era. In this regard, I think Lunark is one of the best of the (admittedly, sparsely populated) genre. Is it as good as Flashback? That is hard to say, simply because that game mostly lives on nostalgia and being a relic of an era. For a newer player, Lunark will be far more fun. For old heads, there are so few games of this style out there it’ll be an amusing romp, even if you don’t fully click with it. Lunark is superb. If you are curious about this game style, this is the perfect entry point!

If you enjoyed Another World you should like this one also.