Transiruby

In Transiruby, you play as Siruby, a teeny cyborg transported into an unknown land in a parallel dimension, which is about as lost as you can be. This gorgeous pixel platformer is a very traditional metroidvania, in which Siruby is accompanied by an AI called Ne-com and equipped with a sword that lets her chop down enemies. Soon you’re given a freeze-ray which lets you more easily attack enemies or use them as improvised platforms. Then you can expect to unlock a double-jump just as soon as one seems imperative, before the usual trick of turning your main character into a motorbike.

See what I did there? What a scamp I am. Indeed, as traditional as Transiruby appears, its unique feature is Siruby’s ability to change into different forms, arriving just long enough into the game to feel special. Also special is how welcoming it all is to players who don’t have the reflexes of a fighter pilot, with approachable boss fights, generous checkpoints, and lots of imaginative puzzles. It’s another game created by a single developer, this time Skipmore, who also developed Kamiko and the Fairune games (with Fairune: Fragment Isles in development). Transiruby is out on PC, Switch, Xbox and PlayStation.