Super Magbot - Review

How well can a platformer perform if the jump function does not exist? That is the question that you must ask yourself as you start to play Super Magbot, because the games replaces jump with magnets, and you have to use the power of the + and – in order to clear each stage and ultimately save the worlds. But is this mechanic enough to take this unique platformer to new heights?

The quest is simple, you are Magbot, tasked with collecting star shards, in the hopes of powering up a weapon to defeat the evil villain that is tearing through the galaxy, leaving utter devastation in its wake. The mission will take you to a series of planets, each with their own theme and across the various locales, you will obtain as many shards as you can, the catch is of course that as a hulking robot, you can’t jump. Thankfully, each planet has platforms that you can make use of, in order to jump and climb with, to collect the shard that each stage contains. While there are some characters that you meet in your quest, they are usually just locked to a specific planet, so there isn’t much to do with them. The games story is more or less, just a way to push you through the levels and while it is not the most original, it has its own charms, of course if you are playing this game, you are more interested in the gameplay.

Gameplay wise, if you have ever played Super Meat Boy, then this is going to feel quite familiar, of course, except for one massive difference, the lack of jump. Before I talk about that more, let me explain the levels, the earlier ones are pretty basic, requiring jumps and pulls to get past, but after a few, they then start adding climbs and then after that, blades of death. The further into the game, the more complex the levels can get, with crystal shards and flames to mess you up, so learning how each hazard works, is crucial if you want to survive to the end of the stage. Getting to the end is going to require you to make use of Magbot’s magnets, because as we said earlier, he can’t jump, so in order to get to the end, you have to use magnetic forces to push you away or pull you up.

Playing on PC, each polarity is assigned to a mouse button, and for ease of discussion we shall just stick with the colour scheme they used, blue on the left and red on the right. When you are standing on a blue pad, if you engage the blue, you are repulsed, if you use the red, you would be pulled into it, pretty standard magnetic attraction rules there. The catch is depending on which way your magnet beam is aiming, if you aim it ahead of you and then engage the same colour, you would be pushed back, aim it behind you and you get thrown forward. When you aim it below, you can get launched into the air, the angle at which you aim, will depend on the amount of forward momentum you get, aim to straight and you get too little, do it to perpendicular to the ground and you get distance, but not height. Once you have cleared the first few stages, the game starts adding in climbs, meaning that you have to use the magnetic points to pull yourself up and as they are almost always over gapping holes, if you do it wrong you die.

Thankfully, death is but a mere inconvenience, as the game will respawn you back to the start of that level without any delays, just like Super Meat Boy, the catch though is that if you are just near the top you have to do everything again. This is not a problem in the early stages, due to their simple layouts, but in the later stages and on later planets, it becomes quite frustrating to have to redo everything again. The catch again though, is based on your reaction to using the right polarity, far too often, I had used the wrong one and found myself being pushed into a hole or worse, being thrown into a blade or other death inducing items. This is where I started to encounter frustrations with the game and it is one that will impact all players, the lack of jump is actually a problem.

It isn’t a problem in the sense that the magnet abilities don’t work, they work fine, the problem is that once you have launched yourself or committed to using your power, you are locked into it, until you either land successfully or die. There is no in-between here, if you miss judge the angle you need to launch yourself up, you are done for, because once you are in the air, there is no control. Your little bot can slow down time, for a moment, to help you line up shots when needed, but if the gap just requires a big leap to clear it and you do a small one, you are done. It could be alleviated if the game allowed for you to reuse the same pad right away, but the game does not, there are a few seconds between when you make use of it, until it is ready to be used again. The same issue applies to your powers, you get two red and two blue and once you use one, it takes a few moments for it to reset and be ready for more, while that isn’t as big of an issue, it is still something to be aware of. From the outset with the game, there were times when I died, because I used the wrong power, but more often than not, I was dying because I had used a slightly lower angle than what was needed, which meant I didn’t make the jump and because once you launch, you are locked in, you can see your death coming.

Something that isn’t as much of a problem is the presentation, the game features a stunning pixel art look, with depth to all the stages, thanks to multiplane backgrounds. The art style is more inspired by the Super Nintendo era of graphics and while they take a few special liberties here and there, for the most part you are getting a game, that could easily be recreated at least visually on that console. The character design, from Magbot to the others that you meet is great, nothing super original in them, but they are all charming enough, though the enemy design is a little more fun. On the sound side of things, you get a mix of wonderful chiptune music and irritating speech noises, but as the latter is heard very little, it can be ignored.

Super Magbot is a game that is hard to recommend, for those that like a good challenge or games that break tradition, then this is perfect, but if you are someone who likes to be able to jump in your platformer, then look elsewhere. Due to the often-rigid nature of the levels, mistiming a jump or aiming poorly, will result in death and while it is but a blip in the runtime, dying multiple times in a row does get frustrating. Just don’t let the wonderful pixel art fool you, Super Magbot is a hard game, it will test your skill and patience, you just have to as yourself if it is worth it, for me, it isn’t.

The Score

7.5

Review code provided by Team17

The Pros

+Beautiful pixel art helps make the constant deaths tolerable

+The lack of jump works well for the game, but requires a good amount of thought, to adjust too

The Cons

-The mechanics of using magnets to get around is a solid idea, but is so demanding of perfect, else you die

-Once you commit to an action, you are stuck with it, as you can't recover from it