Starring a boy named Nemo and his pet poulp (octopus), Promenade is a 2D collectathon that is inspired by 3D platformers.  The demo contains four stages, a simple tutorial level, a beach level, a rather challenging slingshot level, and a boss fight against an angry, bomb-chucking monkey.  The game is very cute and colorful, and while I generally had fun with the entire demo, it’s the beach level, Sandy Stroll, that I want to focus on most.

The best way I can describe Sandy Stroll is like a 2D Banjo-Kazooie or Super Mario 64.  Instead of simply walking left to right until you reach the end like many traditional 2D platformers, in Promenade, you are free to explore in order to find collectibles and complete challenges, such as a miniboss battle against a cannonball-shooting crab, a race, and a puzzle where you must find the exact spot in the background to bring a jigsaw piece.  It all brings to mind such challenges as the boss fight against Nipper the hermit crab in Banjo-Kazooie or the races against the Koopa in Super Mario 64.  The game also seems to take inspiration from Klonoa, considering the way you can use enemies to double jump or throw into other enemies.

As mentioned earlier, the demo also featured a rather challenging level where you practice this slingshot sort of move where you work with your octopus (described as a poulp, but it looks like an octopus to me) to fling yourself from one spot to another.  It was rather difficult, but fair, so it’s good to see the game should have some challenge to it to really test your skills.  The boss fight was perfectly fine, though probably my least favorite thing in the demo, especially when I encountered a glitch where the bomb that I needed to throw became invisible.  Aside from that one issue, there was nothing inherently wrong with the boss; I’m just not big into boss battles to begin with.

Promenade seems like it could be an excellent option for those looking for a unique platformer that takes 3D collectathons and translates them into a 2D space.  It looks like a lot of love was put into this game, and there’s a good chance I’ll be getting it once it goes on sale.  Promenade seems to be $19.99 on Steam and $24.99 on all modern consoles and can take anywhere between 8 hours for a casual playthrough and 20 for those who like to get 100%.