The Horror That Surrounds: The Abyss

Hollow Knight is a challenging Metroidvania about a bug who travels to the dead kingdom of Hallownest, which has been ravaged by a terrible infection, leaving very few inhabitants alive and sane.  This game is no stranger to dark things, and sometimes it veers off into outright horror.  This is especially apparent in two locations…

Return to Hollow Knight

While drifting around between a few games trying to decide what to do next after Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, I happened across a couple of Hollow Knight videos on YouTube. I haven’t really played the game since running through it a few years ago, so it’s been a little bit since I actually…

Hob: An Open-World Metroidvania About a World Infected by Purple Goo

Hob (or in my case, the Definitive Edition of Hob) is a 3D adventure-platformer of sorts where you explore an alien planet infected with a strange purple goo.  The story is told wordlessly through the environment, and the game is completely devoid of music, the ambience being comprised largely of exotic animal noises.  The early…

The Duck’s Ten Best Games of the Last Ten Years

Ten years have gone by, and now it’s time to list the Duck’s ten very favorite games from the last decade, ranging from horror to Metroidvania to expansive adventure and platformer games.  The last decade saw the release of some pretty amazing games from well-known series, along with a whole bunch of amazing indie gems. …

Three Siblings Unite in Greak: Memories of Azur

Greak: Memories of Azur tells the story of three Courine siblings who are split up and must reunite after their land has been ravaged by the Urlag invasion.  This 2D Metroidvania-style game features hand-drawn environments, an epic soundtrack with some strong fantasy vibes, and three playable characters, the youngest sibling, Greak, the middle sibling and…

Imp of the Sun: Demo Review

Imp of the Sun is a Metroidvania that takes place in a world inspired by Peru.  You play as a fiery imp named Nin whose goal is to defeat the Four Keepers and end the Eternal Eclipse.  We begin the demo high up in the mountains with the eclipse in clear view behind us.  I…

Yoku’s Island Express: A Pinball-Metroidvania Adventure

Yoku’s Island Express is an interesting combination of pinball and Metroidvania, and it’s one of those weird ideas that works way better than I ever would have expected.  You play as a dung beetle named Yoku, who was just recently hired as the new postmaster of Mokumana Island. The game features a very pleasant art…

Xeodrifter: Demo Review

Xeodrifter is a pixelated, Metroidvania-style space adventure which appears to be heavily inspired by games like Metroid and Super Metroid.  You are thrown right into the gameplay, finding yourself on some sort of alien planet with absolutely no direction.  A short bit of exploring later, and I had already defeated the first boss and obtained…

Ranking the Bosses of Metroid Dread

Metroid Dread has to feature one of the coolest portrayals of Samus Aran that fans have ever seen.  I’ve already written a review of the game, but finding myself unable to quit talking about it quite yet, I decided it would be fun to rank all of the game’s bosses that Samus so expertly vanquishes,…

I Didn’t Dread Playing Metroid Dread

While I haven’t exactly played that many Metroid games, pretty much every console release since the original Metroid Prime on the GameCube has been a big deal for me.  This particular game sees Samus investigating planet ZDR, from which the Galactic Federation received evidence that the dangerous X parasite is still in existence.  While I…