[b][i]In a world where indie developers are too many, and 2D games by them are many more, could a lone developer have made the perfect 2D combat-platformer? Mini Night Island stands to the test, let’s see if it excels it.[/i][/b]
[h1]What it's all about?[/h1]
Courtesy of the Indie-developers – who I call developers that perceive gaming as an art – we’ve had many challenging computer entertainments. These delightful creations have often satisfied our “acquired” taste for gut-punching difficulty, while also respecting our intelligence. Mini Night Island is one such game. It’s a 2D combat-platformer that takes three elements: slide, attack and defend and gives us a gaming threesome that we can’t but help but go back to.
Though the game is not without flaws, Mackinn7, the lone developer behind Mini Night Island, has tried, tested and put forward all best elements of a combat platformer you can think of, and gave it a unique colour – except jumping, but more about it down below.
[h1]Pros and Cons in a Nutshell[/h1]
[b]Pros[/b]
[list]
[*]Fast-paced addicting gameplay
[*]Challenging action
[*]Good use of sound
[*]Randomized mini-bosses
[/list]
[b]Cons[/b]
[list]
[*]Really short length
[*]Not much in the way of tutorials
[/list]
[h1]Gameplay[/h1]
Mini Night Island is 2D side scrolling action game. Your pixelated player character is a mylittlepony-ish humanoid who has to run to the right across the gaming world comprised of 7 stages. Each stage is divided into multiple sections – generally 4 – where you will encounter unique bosses. They range from mini bosses with mini guns, main bosses like explosives-throwing magical foxes, sword summoning princesses and even animals who use hard hitting power of synth music to deplete your health into oblivion.
There are 5 button prompts for controls: run, slide, attack, special attack and grenade (but no jump). You are alerted of each oncoming attack with streaks across the ground. The wider those streaks, the wider the attacks. You will use running and sliding mechanic to run or slide across those streaks. However, sliding will cost you stamina - giving you a twitch-based choice to either dodge with style or run away while maintaining your mana. Do them, get close to the boss and either use attack, special attack or grenade to take them down.
Complementing the controls and the mechanics is the difficulty. It took me around 20 to 30 minutes to clear the first 4 stages, but that doesn’t matter. Because you’ll go back to the beginning as you die. But don’t worry, randomized enemies (other than big bosses) will keep you entertained as you try to master the craft of combat-platforming.
Attack, defense, power ups, health and I guess, life-metre, these are the stats you have to keep your eye on. The use of word “guess” here means that not much has been explained. While I can argue that it’s a minimalistic game where you have to figure out what the stats mean, the textual prompts, although well-put, don’t tell the whole story - lacking any sense of real tutorial.
[h1]Sound[/h1]
Sound is not just a synth-based background music that you hear as you move your way across the game, Mckinn7 has cleverly weaved it into a gameplay element: specifically, during boss fights. Every attack has a musical rhythm to it. As you figure out what it is, you have to anticipate and jedi-trick your way across levels.
As for the background soundtrack, it’s nothing to be excited for. It’s a generic synth-based music that gives you an innocent party like feeling. However, you won’t mind any of it as you fight your way against those cleverly designed bosses I mentioned.
[h1]Price[/h1]
Mini Night Island, a 2D platformer where if you are skilful enough, can clear it within an hour, is a mini game that costs mini too. At just $2.99, the game is a steal. And, considering the potential of this developer, I guess such a little investment will allow us to look into all that he/she is capable of.
[h1]Graphics[/h1]
It’s a 2D platform with pixelated graphics reminiscent of the early gaming years. However, the lighting, the screen shake during battles and the sound brings that 2D goodness to modern times. The performance is flawless, considering the graphical fidelity of the game doesn’t demand much from your computer.
[h1]Conclusion[/h1]
Mini Night Island is a good side-scrolling action game that puts fast-paced combative action coupled with platforming above everything else. If you want to have a good-short-time, I recommend this game 100 percent. On that note, I give this game an 8 out of 10.
[b][i]This product was reviewed using a free key given by the developers[/i][/b]
[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/23741321/]Follow our curator page,[b] Alexander's Club Curations[/b] if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/url][/quote]
