Oniken: Unstoppable Edition

Oniken is yet another game by JoyMasher that perfectly captures the NES aesthetic and what made the NES titles great back in the day. I believe it’s actually their first game, but I played this one right after Odallus: The Dark Call, and I think Oniken felt somewhat superior compared to it. Especially the soundtrack. It’s not a very long game; it takes about 90 minutes to finish, even with a leisurely playthrough, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing since that’s the average length of something from that era. A fair warning, though. It’s quite tough if you’re not a seasoned player in the field. There isn’t much to cover about the gameplay. It plays pretty much like Ninja Gaiden, and the last few stages reminded me of Kabuki: Quantum Fighter, thanks to those tough platforming sections. You occasionally get a sword upgrade that lasts about 2 hits, and it extends your sword’s range. Furthermore, it grants you berserk status with invincibility and increased damage output for a few seconds upon hitting its dedicated button. Apart from your trustworthy sword, you have grenades that deal quite a lot of damage, and they are very useful against the bosses since they can kill them quickly…

[h1] Fartiken. [/h1]

Oniken is a fun side-scroller inspired by old pixelated games like Ninja Gaiden and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, following the same level of difficulty and challenge while being accompanied by a nice soundtrack. Unfortunately, the game has far too many inexcusable technical limitations and bugs to be truly recommendable.

Classic retro games are timeless

This game is badass. It genuinely feels like it could've released in the 1980s. If you like challenging linear platformers of that era (e.g. The NES Ninja Gaidens, Castlevania, Contra), you will love this.

Nostalgia fodder. Charming when it came out. Today, not so much. It's well-made, for a game that looks like it came out of the oven 30 years too late. It's not so much a love letter to 8-bit action platformers, as it's simply a project that brings nothing new to the table and does nothing to modernize the experience or make it even remotely appealing beyond the extremely dated gameplay. It's not a fun mix of old and new to create something fresh. If for some reason you decided not to hunt down an emulator and play the originals that inspired this game, it's possible that Oniken will entertain you a little if you're starving and have already gone through the myriad of similar, but much better games like Shovel Knight or, I don't know, The Messenger. Maybe? I think their shine has faded a bit too. I really don't see much point in it. Other games from the studio like Odallus and Blazing Chrome, following the same line, did much more to stand out.