Robbie Swifthand and the Orb of Mysteries

This is a tedious puzzle-platformer that errs more on the side of being trial and error, reflex driven challenges with a micro-second of leeway on the timing before something crushes you, stabs you, slices you, burns you and so on, and so on, and sooooo onnnnnnnn. Each stage in the game is a self-contained area that takes about a minute or less to complete. That is, at least, when you've had 10 (or a 100) or more tries at it, and have memorised every single little thing that can kill you AND have also figured out the puzzle element of the stage. Given that progression can sometimes be linked to the traps, such as fallen stone-work being a step towards higher platforms, you can't figure out a level through wits alone. You don't know what's going to collapse until the moment happens. You don't know that there's killer spikes on the floor because they're either hard to see or totally obscured. And to be honest: they're not really mentally challenging puzzles once you've run the gamut of things you trigger along the way. It's too tedious to be rewarding as an intellectual exercise, when 90% of it is just remembering all the obstacles and then trying to achieve pixel perfect, tim…

This is one of those hidden gems of a platforming game that I was lucky to come across. Robbie Swifthand is a trap platformer where the goal in each level is to get an orb to throw at a certain location to unlock the exit. Trap games like IWBTG and Cat Mario are old concepts that are not really seen too often for some reason, but this game does it right. Every level is a test of memory, precision, and timing, and every level feels rewarding to beat. I haven't really played a lot of trap platformers and I thought I wouldn't like it that much due to the inherent trial and error, but I had a blast. The bosses are quite challenging too, but not too frustrating considering platformer bosses tend to be not so great in general. Instead, they're satisfying as well as having great songs to accompany them. It has some depth to the control that takes some learning, but since you have to beat worlds to unlock new abilities, it introduces them gradually to you. At first you can only jump, crouch jump, ledgegrab, and throw. Later on you get a double jump and then a short horizontal hover, and the levels make good use of your abilities. Overall a fun experience. Even the few parts that were a …

You really need to learn the levels as some of the deaths feel unfair. I wish the game had double jump rather than duck jump. It's a good game, it's tough, but once you get used to the jump and 'hidden traps' it's fun for a while.

This is one of the most hidden gems of platformers vertical on Steam! Every level is a test of memory, precision, and timing with challenging bosses that enhance the gaming experience. Loved the soundtrack also!

Punishing, Simple, Samey.

Great game, you can play for hours and enjoy losing 😆. I recommend it to have it on your library!