Islets

Another metroidvania with Studio Ghibli vibes is Islets, a very traditional 2D action-platformer with the splendid twist of massive levels that can be joined together as sky islands such that different pathways can be accessed. At the same time, your lovely little mouse character gains all the abilities you would hope for, including almost straight away the all-important double-jump, as well as having many more nuanced abilities that can be boosted at various points.

You’ll be horrified to learn that the magnetic cores that once held the sky islands together in one piece have gone unrepaired for so long that the various chunks have begun drifting apart. This let beasties sneak in, and it’s all just gone dreadfully wrong. Time to put it right! Each block is a unique set of challenges, playing out like a game world in their own right, and then between these is the airship section where you can buy upgrades, float around in your own little ship, do other surprise boss fights, and rearrange the island chunks such that a pathway that previously just led to the sky now joins up to a corridor you previously couldn’t access in another. Which is terribly clever.

The bosses here are incredibly forgiving, with very reasonable patterns to learn and master, and you can see my hilariously failing to do that in the video above. (I stress, I didn’t struggle with these fights nearly as much when playing before, which I say not to excuse my incompetence but to stress this is a very approachable game.)

Islets is so gorgeously animated that it constantly takes my breath away, and I reckon is just about perfect on a Switch. (I played on Steam Deck which worked very well too.) Created by lone developer Kyle Thompson (also responsible for last year’s wonderful Crypt Custodian), it’s available on PC, Switch and Xbox.