Unbound: Worlds Apart

The highly popular "little kid in an oppressive environment" trope has given Alien Pixel Studios the perfect excuse to create another platformer where said kid suffers extreme ordeals in order to save, this time around, the titular worlds. The kid is basically Red Riding Hood, with a candle twist.

He also happens to be a gifted mage who can open portals to other worlds, this being the game's distinctive mechanic. He wasn't always in an oppressive environment. In the beginning, we find him in a nice village that is in the middle of a celebratory event. Then some demon invades and the village will never be cheerful again. Demon invasions tend to do that.

All our hero has to do in order to save the worlds is to jump around, sometimes with help of his portals. He can only do a few extra things (double jump, wall jump, double dash), but there are many types of portals to help him along the way. He encounters a lot of NPCs and a decent variety of enemies (including cool bosses). Most of his journey is not particularly hard, but there are difficulty spikes here and there, and the last world he visits is very challenging.

The worlds themselves are beautifully hand drawn and the excellent soundtrack adds to their particular feel.

It was never going to be anyone's favorite game, but Unbound: Worlds Apart is a charming, fun and somewhat challenging platformer.

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