Cat Nigiri issued Necrosphere Deluxe, a bite-sized metroidvania maze-like title, as early as Jan. 31 on Nintendo Switch, but already from 2017 it is possible to play it on Steam, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. The game looks like a trial and error old style, with various small sequences of obstacles to overcome gradually more and more difficult and decidedly more frustrating ... in some cases touching the roof of the rage-quit.
Life beyond life
The title introduces us to the story in a very concise and concise way with a small opening video as an explanation. Our character is an agent who was killed on duty and who, while we play, finds himself trapped in Necrosphere (that is, the closest thing to the world of the dead you can imagine).
Our protagonist's mission is to find a way out of the Necrosphere and be able to return to the world of the living, called for convenience Normalsphere. To do this it will be necessary to overcome the various structural challenges that the game will put in front of us and find the only functioning portal of the four present in the game world. Missing the portal will return the player to the first room of the huge and dispersed labyrinth.
Exploring the labyrinth
Necrosphere Deluxe it is purposely created to be frustrating, just enough to offer an adequate level of challenge for lovers of the genre. However, the game doesn't just offer challenges to solve with jumps well placed or col jet-pack used in the correct way, but also explores the world of completism by launching the player with the additional challenge of finding discs like collectibles.
The simplistic nature of the game was brought to bear by the development team of Cat Nigiri, giving the player only two buttons to use to go left or right, jump and use the jat-pack. In fact, this mechanic is, on the one hand, nice and interesting, but on the other it is a clear "cut" in addition to the already high difficulty of the title.
Speaking of the game's soundtrack, each scenario has its own soundtrack, which repeats itself in an infinite loop, until we move on to the next zone. This choice is valid and not questionable, since it is a Metroidvania (a videogame context in which this mood is the practice).
in the long run, however - and it will be, given that some of the challenges will be able to engage for hours if you are not exactly accustomed to the genre - always hearing the same melody echoing, boring, and leads the player to prefer mute gameplay rather than enjoying a sound that is all in all really catchy.
Another flaw of the title is the transposition into Spanish, which lacks precision and is often subject to typing errors in the dialogues on the screen, irreparably invalidating some of the discussions that the characters in the Normalsphere entertain with our protagonist, through practical cards scattered in the Necrosphere.
The exit portal
Coming to the end, we can say that this title is definitely valid if you are a lover of the genre trial and error and if you want to approach a challenge really not bad in terms of difficulty. The title makes the simplicity of the controls its strong point, however managing to complicate even those to offer an even greater challenge.
Also increase the replayability of the title giving as a pretext i collectible discs is a solution that will make many lovers of completism happy, who will continue to wander through the labyrinthine corridors of the Necrosphere looking for that last piece to finish the game 100%.
Also the title, on Nintendo Switch, it has a great advantage over all other versions, namely portability. Feature immediately peculiar to the hybrid of the big N, which never misses an opportunity to show itself for its practicality. Indeed Necrosphere Deluxe lends itself optimally to short sessions of gameplay maybe during a train or subway trip.
