Thursday is freebie day on the Epic Games Store, with a new game rotating in to be free for keepsies for the next week. This time it’s Sundered, the hand-drawn metroidvania from the studio behind Jotun. Our former John (RPS in peace) declared it “a completely wonderful metroidvania” in his Sundered review so do have a look.

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If only you could have heard the RPS treehouse chat a few months ago, during the great Metroidvania debate of 2017. Battle lines were drawn. On the one side: John, insisting that of course Dead Cells isn’t a Metroidvania. On the other side: everyone else, calling John an old fogey for insisting on overly strict and out-dated genre boundaries. On the other other side: the sensible people, who probably didn’t get involved because this is a silly discussion that’s of no consequence whatsoever.

Still, I was in the second group, and can’t help but picture the smug look on John’s face as he dropped news of the “Not a Metroidvania” Steam bundle into our Trello this morning. It includes the best game of 2017, the splendid Sundered, the Dark Souls-esque Salt and Sanctuary, and the comparatively essless Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition. John likes all of them, but what does he know. (more…)

Sundered [official site] is the ridiculously beautiful Metroidvania from the people who brought us the ridiculously beautiful Jotun. In a busy genre, does it do enough to stand out? Here are my thoughts: (more…)

Sundered [official site], the Lovecraft-tinged Metroidvani ! I ! from the folks behind Jotun, will launch in July. That’s the news from developers Thunder Lotus who have, in the meantime, launched a Kickstarter to fund making Sundered all shiny and polished in these final few months. If you fancy delving into procedurally-generated dungeons to rumble with many-mawed horrors and don’t want to wait until July, swing by the Sundered Kickstarter to sling some pennies its way. … [visit site to read more]