Dust Force

Dust Force manged to charm me right out of the game with the tutorial. The game features a set of four characters who are working to clean up the world. They run jump and slide through levels cleaning up dust and earning keys.

I loaded up the game not sure what to expect, and in my standard fashion when a game drops me in a wold with minimal instruction I start to hammer on random keys till something happens. I started with my standard WSAD and upon noticing no effect to my character I looked around the screen. directly above my character's head floating simply was press up for tutorial' so I jumped in. Right away I had learned that I could enter levels by pressing up. The tutorial ran through a level that never locked out any of my player controls. Rather is slowly revealed to me how I could inter act with the environment. It was rough the first time through, jumping into spikes and running headlong into walls. But the controls were solid, each key press had the character reacting in a fashion I understood and expected. The controls felt very tight, but at the same time allowed me to flow through the environment in a fashion I expected. At the end of the level I revived a score and discovered that I had not ranked well compared to many other players online. So I  jumped back into the tutorial level to try again. At the moment I knew I was hooked.

The game works in a hub and rooms fashion, where the over map was it self a level that contained doors that led me to other zones each with their own levels. The harder it was to find a level the more challenging it was. After playing through some of the forest levels and cleaning off some woodland creatures I ventured into the castle zone. Near the top a man standing over a door mentioned that not all doors were easy to find. I was up till that moment proud at finding the door he was located near, but my gamer sense flared up. Nearby in a hard to reach location there must be a secret door! This investigation led me to the Tower level, where only very high precision jumps and ceiling clings and combos allowed you to float through the level. The gameplay mechanics I had learned on the other levels came out in amazing ways. Jumping between enemies and using them to gain the momentum to continue my assent. It was amazing to me how engaging the simple platforming was. It was a difficult feat but once I had completed it I felt like a king. With out that level's complexity I would of enjoyed my experience but never felt as if I had overcome any challenge. I found that feeling lacking when I moved back to other games. I heartily recommend checking out Dust Force, the game has the best platforming feel that I have encountered  in over 10 years. Treat your self and enjoy the challenge and soothing appeal of an amazing platfomer.

Dust Force can be found at http://dustforce.com/