Necrosphere Deluxe

DETAILED REVIEW

Necrosphere is a small indie game, made by a small indie team. Inspired by the classic 8-Bit retro designs, and an extremely simplified control scheme, Necrosphere Deluxe plans to be your platformer of choice on your Switch during your commute. Does it succeed, Let’s find out.

Story & Narrative

You play as Terry Cooper, who has landed in the Necrosphere after his untimely death. Rest of the game is basically his quest to return to the Normal World, “The Normalsphere” by escaping his way through the dangerous labyrinth that he finds himself in.

Apart from the opening cutscene, the rest of the story is told through collectible/missable letters strewn throughout the game. Its a double edged sword that choice. While you may look at it and think that this offers the player as much immersion as he wants for the story. On the other hand, considering most players would miss most of the letters on their first playthrough, they would experience a disoriented and fragmented tale at best.

The game does offer multiple endings, thus encouraging players to dive back in, but the game being as difficult as it is, even a single playthrough should have told a loosely coherent story, which the game fails to do.

Gameplay & Mechanics

Necrosphere Deluxe is a 2-D scroller platformer Metroidvania. That should tell you enough about how the game plays like. The hook though is the hyper simple controls that the game utilizes.

THERE IS NO JUMP BUTTON. Yes, you read that right, Necrosphere Deluxe only has a right and left directional control. Everything else is controlled by the environment and gravity. Now the absence of jumping and other skills does seem to make the game feel extremely simple and novel in the beginning, but as the difficulty ramps up, and you start relying on the muscle memory of pressing the jump button at the right time, it becomes irritating. So much so, that it took me over 2 months to finish the entire game, only because of all the rage quits I was doing.

The challenges too ramps up pretty quickly in Necrosphere Deluxe and one does not need to be at the top of his game to finish some sections of the game. And if you think the normal levels were tough, you can also collect DVDs throughout the game, which would unlock even harder levels for you to tackle. Fortunately, you have infinite lives, and respawning is immediate, though I have been caught at a dismal dead-end checkpoint a couple of times, so maybe there should be an option to back out a couple of checkpoints in the game.

Talking about checkpoints, just like a Metroidvania, Necrosphere Deluxe also involves some decent amount of backtracking. Any area that you have already visited though would be marked with a lighted torch, so it becomes easier to navigate and the game which also lacks a mini-map.

Graphics Sound & Performance

Graphically, Necrosphere Deluxe opts for the classic 8-Bit Retro design that most others from its genre have embraced. While I am no fan of this particular art-style, it does lend itself well to the game, allowing it to be responsive and snappy as the game should be.

The soundtrack, on the other hand, is above average and deserves a mention. It’s poppy and feels very Contra. There is no voice-over to speak of so that’s that.

VERDICT

Necrosphere Deluxe tries to marry simple controls with difficult tough as nails gameplay. And honestly, it doesn’t work. For a game designed to be simple enough to be picked and played, such difficulty is a hindrance instead of a challenge. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have serious twitchy fingers, and don’t have anything else to pick up.