Batbarian: Testament of the Primordials
OK, we started with a game you’ve almost definitely already heard of, but what about one you almost certainly haven’t? Batbarian: Testament of the Primordials is a wonderful metroidvania by Unspeakable Pixels, nicely drawn and animated, with the potential to be a hard-as-nails metroid-style platformer if that’s what you want it to be. But if you’d prefer it to be a much more easy, extra-breezy affair, you can make it that instead. Or something somewhere in-between. Unlike so many games of the genre, Batbarian entirely trusts the player to create the experience that works best for them, with a suite of “Assists” that you can switch on or off at will. Oh, and you play as a barbarian who falls into a strange dungeon-like underworld, accompanied only by your friend Pip, a glowing bat.
If you’re someone whose hands just cannot perform the dexterous inputs required by so many games, you can pick “Slow Motion Aiming.” A lot of the game relies on throwing objects, like stones and fruits, and timing can become crucial. But if that’s not your bag, you can have the game slow down at these moments, letting you take aim more calmly. Finding that your very limited health pool isn’t enough for you to cope with the combat? You could switch on Double Healing, or Double Items From Pickups, both of which will help with that. There’s a Regen Min HP After Delay toggle, which ensures you can always rely on gaining a teeny bit of health after a tough sequence, or not, if you prefer persisting to get out of a scrape. Perhaps you want your barbarian to level up more quickly (levels gain you randomly assigned boosts to attack, defense and awareness, the latter of which adjusts how much of the dark levels you can perceive without Pip’s light), so you could pick Boosted XP On Weaker Enemies. And maybe you’re just finding the darkness issue too much to be enjoyable, so flick on Increased Ambient Light. All of these options (and there are others, too) are off by default, meaning just leaving them all alone ensures you’ll play the game as intended. But if you cannot, Batbarian wants you to be able to continue enjoying it, letting you tweak small elements rather than just have the whole game become significantly easier at once. What a truly splendid thing.
The excellent $15 game is available on PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Switch, with a DRM-free version via Itch.
