BADLAND: Game of The Year Edition Review

Much like Legend of Kay last week, I am starting a game from scratch that seems to have gathered some prestige and I have no knowledge of it previously. To garner a ‘game of the year’ edition it must mean this is a bit of a darling already. It already has done the rounds on smart devices, PCs and other consoles gathering acclaim, but does it deserve acclaim in this version though?

To me the biggest deal of this one is its look; man the art in this game is gorgeous! I have seen the aesthetic that is used in this game before where colourful backgrounds are mixed with shaded foregrounds, my favourite being some of the levels in Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze. Limbo is said to be similar, but I haven’t played it and from what I gather it’s moody, black and white only! The colour really makes it pop; the graphics are finely tunes and really make this one of the best looking indie games on the Wii U Eshop. If even looks are great on the gamepad only mode!

The next best thing to me is the gameplay, even though I had compared it to the terrible blight on gaming that was Flappy Bird, it isn’t quite like that, and yet it is. You see, you are on an auto scrolling level controlling your little bird character by flapping just pressing the A button as you need it, kind of like Nintendo classic Balloon fight if I think about it! When you think of Flappy Bird, as soon as you touch anything you die, that is nothing like what we get with this game. Where you die in Flappy Bird with one touch in this one you only get caught or just sit, it is the auto scrolling -screen that will kill you, crushing you or pushing you into a hazard.

Not only is that but there so much variation in the game that it is actually very deep. You get collectables to get you to grow bigger, to grow smaller, to even get clones and more. These upgrades are needed to get through narrow passage ways or break through parts you can. You are pushing that A button to control your bird, collecting the power up you need all while the auto scrolling screen is following you! As it sounds things can get frantic, but the stress levels aren’t too high, the levels are just short enough not to become a chore, bringing a drop in and out mechanic that is good for the game itself, breaking it up keeps the interest up; it certainly did for me anyway.

The sound is fine; it’s atmospheric but nothing really to write home about. The storyline is pretty much non-existent; the progress is seen as four times in the two days. First one is day and so on; it is more about the atmosphere created here, which I must say though ambiguous is still very strong. The shapes, the light and the dark, the sound, the different traps, everything as a package is very nice.

Technically I think the Wii U port itself is decent, at the price point it is at is decent too when you think of the package as a whole. There is plenty of content with over a hundred levels and over ten hours of gameplay overall, the multiplayer adds even more content too. I can certainly see why this got a game of the year edition and I would recommend this one to those that fancy it! While at the same time I can say some people just might not get it either, I must say I thought it was worthwhile!

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Nintendo Wii U code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.