TUNIC by TUNIC Team

Plenty of video games promise a return to the classics. A easy browse of any on-line storefront will reveal no finish of 8-bit video games designed to move 30 and 40-somethings to the times of their youth. However, whereas many of those video games are profitable (and genuinely enjoyable), few of them are in a position to seize the spirit of discovery that got here together with taking part in one thing like the unique The Legend of Zelda for the primary time.

In an ironic twist, TUNIC makes no such guarantees of nostalgia-bait. And but it captures what’s nice about these outdated video games higher than anybody else.

Legend of a Banished Man

TUNIC wastes no time in getting you into the expertise. As an cute fox who awakens on the shore of a mysterious island, your preliminary objective is just to discover. There are gadgets to gather, enemies to struggle, upgrades to spend, blocked-off areas to take a position how one can attain, the gang’s all right here. However, the few bits of plot you’re given quickly reveal a better thriller at play, and TUNIC makes fixing that thriller simply as charming because the exploration.

In a frankly genius twist, a few of the sport’s primary collectibles are fragments of its personal instruction guide. While these initially give fundamental info like your controls, a map, and a few small ideas, it quickly turns into clear that there are many secrets and techniques inside these pages. You’ll ceaselessly come again to it as you discover the land, and a few of its eventual reveals will outright change the way you’ve perceived the world, in ways in which I dare not spoil right here.

TUNIC additionally sports activities loads of puzzles to resolve. While many of those unfold in very Zelda-like vogue, others require considering outdoors the field to a stage that jogged my memory of Fez‘s biggest mind-benders. It’s genuinely spectacular how intelligent this sport will be.

Legends Never Die

It definitely doesn’t harm both that TUNIC is only a charming expertise from begin to end. The sport’s deceptively easy artwork design options loads of spectacular surprises itself. I ceaselessly discovered myself going “HOW was this made by such a small team?!” I can also’t recover from the cute pencil artwork used all through the guide. Oh, and to not be outdone, TUNIC’s music can also be simply as whimsical and pleasant.

If I had a gripe to make in regards to the sport, it’s that a few of the later hidden puzzles are a bit too “clever” for their very own good. While the bulk have been enjoyable brain-teasers, there have been a couple of that hardly felt definitely worth the reward. I might additionally warning individuals this sport and anticipating a lightweight, breezy expertise, as TUNIC’s fight will be fairly difficult, particularly bosses.

TUNIC serves as a reminder of what made the journey video games of the previous as compelling as they have been. At the identical time, its improvements on the formulation put lots of trendy designs to disgrace. It’s an journey sport by individuals who love journey video games, for individuals who love journey video games, and that love carries by means of to each single a part of the expertise.

TUNIC is out there through the Nintendo Store, Microsoft Xbox Store, GOG, and Steam.

Watch the trailer for TUNIC under: