Sands of Aura Review (Switch)

While the top down and ismoteric dungeon crawling genre has been an ever present on platforms like Steam, the Switch has seen far fewer titles make it over to the platform. Of course, there is the giant of Diablo and a few games such as Moonlighter but overall it’s all Rogue-likes and Metroidvania’s that dominate the indie sales of the eshops. Sands of Aura it a solid and content filled attempt to change that.

The game is an open world adventure where most of the world is buried beneath a huge sea of sand. Players spend most of their time delving beneath the sand in dungeons, looking for ancient relics with the overall goal of restoring life to the world. The dungeons are dark and complex with well-designed layouts that wind around labyrinthine like. They are perhaps a little too dark at times though as we kept falling off the edge of things we couldn’t see.

You don’t spend the whole time in the dark though as there are numerous settlements and islands above the ground to explore as well and players can take sand ships to sail around the sand ocean looking for new areas to explore. While you do have quests, you can explore fairly freely as long as you can stay alive.

There’s a certain Dark Souls feel to the game as well. It’s certainly not as crushing as the Souls series, but the linking level designs, combat pace and the fact you drop all your money when you die certainly show the rootes winding through this. It did make us wonder what a full isometric Dark Souls game might look like.

There’s certainly a lot for players to get involved with here as well. Your inventory is detailed and upgrading is the only real way to improve weapons and armour. You don’t pick up new weapons as such, but instead different parts such as pommels or blades and then forge them together to create upgrades and imbue special qualities. This goes for armour as well and you’ll find you are always collecting things, sometimes to the point that you aren’t really sure what you hard earned junk collection is useful for.

Combat is solid as well with a good range of moves and options. You have your standard light and heavy attacks along with rolls and dodges and both a shield and parry system. Add in special attacks and spells and you’ll find there are a range of options for players to think about in how they approach the bashing of enemies.

The only real issue with the game is that it’s quite ugly to look at. Its indie routes are very much on show above ground where we had a lot of noticeable pop in and there is a real blandness to colours and textures. A lot of the time you don’t notice this as the camera stays fairly close, but when you are looking out over the sand sea or in certain positions things really show their lack of details. This isn’t a massive issue due to how engaging the game can be, but if you find yourself repeating difficult sections it can quickly become dull and doesn’t help with getting lost in the maze like levels.

Overall, Sands of Aura is an engaging and deep game that if you dig into it will keep you engaged for the hours and hours it will take you to complete it. It does take engagement from the player to get the most out of it though and you’ll need to spend a good few hours getting used to how everything works. It’s the sort of games that Souls and Diablo fans should get on well with and just accessible enough for those not so hardcore to enjoy it as well.

Overall 7/10

The Prisoning: Fletcher's Quest Review (Switch)

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

Street Racer Collection Review (Switch)

I don’t think it’s a secret that we do love a QUByte collection here at Retro 101. As long time SNES collectors it’s great to see some of the more obscure titles out there being given a second life and we’ve been hoping Street Racer would get a release for quite some time. Indeed, back in the day there was a semi-sensible argument to be had that it might even be better than Mario Kart.

This collection may seem a bit strange as there was only one game in the franchise, but it becomes more coherent when you realise Street Racer was quite different depending on the system you played it on. Here we have the SNES, Mega Drive, Gameboy and DOS versions of the game with their various quirks and alterations.

We’ll start by saying that the Gameboy version is only here from a curiosity point of view and you’ll likely spend a few minutes with it as it’s not great. A bigger shame is that the package omits the PS1 and Saturn versions of the game. They are most closely aligned to the DOS version but much tighter in their controls so it seems an odd choice unless there were emulation issues, but then there’s no shortage of either consoles games on the Switch currently.  

The most well-known version of Street Racer is the original, SNES version from 1994. It was most notable for allowing four player split-screen via the multiplayer adapter. Something that’s seems crazy now when you think just how crushed the image would look and how small TVs were at the time. Still, it’s a crazy cross between street fighter (there’s even a sumo wrestler driver), and kart racing with a host of colourful characters in crazy, Wacky Races style vehicles.

Each character has a front and rear attack that can be deployed whenever you like and they can also punch to the left or right. Karts have health bars which when depleted see you really slow down. The only on track collectibles are stars, which can give bonus race points and turbo picks ups. The structure is like Mario kart in that you engage in a series of races across themed courses in different cups. You can get bonus points for punching, lapping opponents or a few other things though which means even if you finish down the pack you can stay competitive. One thing we will say though is the controls feel a tad lose compared to the Evercade version, which is odd.

The one real issue is that the tracks are really short. This is evened out by races having a higher lap count, but it can be almost impossible to get yourself to the front of the pack if you have a bad start as a race can fly by in under a minute. It will be a lot for new players to take as it’s very fast and frantic, far more so than other kart games. The SNES version at least gets to utilise its mode 7 to make tracks seem as dynamic as 16-bit consoles will allow.

As well as the standard racing there are two fun bonus modes included. There’s the rumble where all the cars are in an arena and you need to knock them off the edges, and a soccer mode where you are trying to score goals. Both games work surprisingly well and are good distractions.

The Mega Drive version by contrast doesn’t hold up as well. The lack of the Mode 7 magic means you get quite generic tracks which all seem to blend after a while as they snake away into the distance. It all feels a bit dull and samey, a real shame as the game still moves at a frenetic pace. Much like the Gameboy version it seems unlikely you’ll spend much time with this.

The DOS version at least brings something different to the collection. The game looks and plays quite a bit different with tracks designed to look more cartoon like and races taking a steadier pace. There are also a few collectibles and picks ups you can use. It reminded us of a slower Wacky Races than the chaotic SNES game, but it is something you’ll likely go back to a few times.

Overall, while we personally are happy to see one of our favourite games from the past revitalised there are a few problems here. The price of £17.99 is way over making it an impulse purchase and seems a strange price point for an obscure title. Also, missing the PS1 and Saturn versions is a real shame as if you are putting together a collection like this it now feels incomplete for the hardcore fan. That said, the SNES and DOS versions are fun, so if you can overcome the price and lack of completeness then there’s a lot to play with here.

Overall 7/10

Blood: Refreshed Supply (Switch)

We are fully aware that Retro 101 is in danger of becoming a Nightdive Studio review site. It seems there is a new revival almost every week. But then we can’t argue with either the quality (most of the time), or the fact that a studio is bringing so many classic FPS games from yesteryear to a new audience. The latest of these is the obscure Blood, which originally came out on the PC in 1997.

Blood is a gothic horror themed game that is set out stylistically across the 1920’s 30’s and 40’s. You play as Caleb who is set on taking revenge against his former master and will need to blast through a host of cultists and demons to gain his vengeance.

The weapons here are not your standard fare such as flare guns and pitch forks.  Most have secondary uses (unique for the time), and there’s even a powerup that lets you dual wield. The flare gun is a particularly satisfying weapon as once you have hit a target they will then burst into flames a few seconds later. Theya re all pretty brutal though.

One thing to say about the game is it’s incredibly difficult. We struggled to get off the first level for quite a while and that was with quick saves. There is little ammunition around for guns and even the most basic of enemies can take down your health very quickly. Enemies with projectiles are also deadly accurate, even on the default difficulty settings. This means the game can be a bit stop and go, sometimes you’ll be tearing around at super speed, while others you’ll keep getting cut down by the same annoying cult member you can’t see. There are plenty of settings to paly around with if it all gets too much.

As always with Nightdive releases this is a pretty complete package. The expansions for the original game have been included along with a new episode and even a host of unreleased levels can be found and played in the archive section. Multiplayer is also here and previously removed graphical flourishes such as weather effects have been added back in. As usual, there has been a lot of care and attention spent on this.

Blood is not a game we’ve played before, but it has a cool retro horror vibe and a unique atmosphere which sets it apart from most of the other FPS’s we can think of. It’s somewhere between Hexen and Doom but somehow much crazier than either. It could well be one of the most overlooked and underrated games of the genre as it brings a lot of innovations and fresh ideas.

Overall, this is another excellent remaster of an obscure game from Nightdive. It’s hard to see this selling massively, which is a shame. The lack of awareness or big name associated with the game may well see people skip it but it’s an entertaining spin on the genre. Anyone who has been steadily making their way through the continual FPS output should certainly check this out and for anyone out who has fond memories of it back in the 90’s, this won’t let you down. It just might be a bit tougher than you remember.

Overall 7/10