Here at Retro 101 we are huge fans of Elden Pixels and everything they put out. The Alwa games remain among our favourite indie games, and we have reviewed and rated the company’s entire output. We even had the good fortune to be able to review the physical NES copy of Alwa’s Awakening when it released some years ago. With that in mind we are always looking forward to a new release and The Prisoning doesn’t disappoint.
The concept of the game is that a developer is working
through one of his nightmares and fighting off all those pesky inner demons. Along
the way you’ll encounter a cast of very meta characters and there are lots of
jokes and quips about the development and publishing process. In terms of the
game design, what this amounts to is a platform adventure game with some
Metroidvania elements. But one that plays more like an Amiga or old DOS
platformer than what we are perhaps used to today.
Graphically, the game matches the Amiga aesthetic as well. It’s
not a million miles away from something like Rick Dangerous or the original
Duke Nukem platformers. It matches Elden Pixels general approach to the look of
their games, although this is closer to a Void Hope than the purposely NES and
SNES looking Alwa’s games.
The game plays out over one large level with multiple checkpoints
throughout. These take the form of a sort of bar kiosk were every time you die
you recycle through the vending machine nearby. Death is a near constant as you
can only take two hits before expiring. Even that must be earned as right at
the start of the game you are naked and unarmed, meaning you have a few tough
sections to get through before the game opens up to you and you get your
clothes and handy pistol.
The two-hit mechanic also makes boss fight pretty tough as
you’ll need to pretty much perfect them to win. Even taking on a weird
mechanical horse thing early on proved a tough obstacle as it was filled with
attacks seemingly impossible avoid (until we learned the pattern), with and a
health bar that stretched across the screen.
Collision detection is also a tiny bit lose which doesn’t
help. Several times we found ourselves losing a hit when we were convinced we
had avoided an attack. There’s nothing here that derails the experience, but it
certainly can be frustrating at times as the game has a pretty high difficult.
Generally, though, the controls are pretty tight and
responsive. Your character moves around at a crazy pace so zipping about from
checkpoint to check point is quick and fun. Jumping and attacking is also precise,
so everything is satisfying and enjoyable. You can warp from vending machine to
vending machine as well which adds even more pace to the game. We can see this
becoming a popular speedrun among indie games for sure.
Being in the Metroidvania mould you of course start to
unlock new abilities as you progress such as a double jump and a slide which makes
you invincible for a second or so. This in turn opens new areas to explore.
Early on for instance you’ll find your new double jump allows access to a UFO
which then takes flight into a short side scroller shooter phase before
crashing into a new location.
Despite how many of these games we have played in the past
we did find that the approach that The Prisoning took kept things fresh and
pacey. It goes to show how slight changes to approach can keep things
interesting and having this slightly closer to games like Switchblade in terms
of style certainly helps it.
Overall, The Prisoning is another fun title from Elden Pixel
that shows the studios unique humour and its ability to take tried and tested
genres and add their own twist to them. This game may not have the same impact
as Alwa’s Legacy on the wider market but it deserves to. For retro gamers or
those who find humour in the subject matter this is an easy purchase.
Overall 8/10
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