![]() You’ll make your way through futuristic cityscapes, lush forests, atmospheric caves and plenty of other exotic locations. Throughout the entirety of LUNARK, I can’t think of a single environment that wasn’t a pure joy to explore. Most importantly, while LUNARK’s themes and mechanics may be carbon copies of previous games, it presents those echoes through stellar level design and encounters. You’ll get small shifts in controls and gameplay quirks that make LUNARK one of the most player-friendly cinematic platformers out there. You’ll get a fun, energetic soundtrack when most cinematic platformers remain largely ambient in terms of music. ![]() You’ll get some slight hints of humor that you won’t find in hardly any cinematic platformers. Why bother playing something so heavily inspired by genre-defining titles when you can still go back and play those games? Well, even with its very familiar territory, LUNARK still manages to find its own identity. Up to this point, it might sound like LUNARK plays things a little too closely to the greats, leaving you to question if it’s worth your time. Truth be told, there’s probably no other platformer that LUNARK more closely mimics in all areas than Flashback. Without getting into specifics, there are a handful of areas where the story of LUNARK expands and creates its own tale, but it’s extremely evident that Flashback served as the basis for what you get. In particular, if you’ve ever played through the 1992 classic Flashback, LUNARK is going to feel incredibly similar. LUNARK clearly comes from a team that truly admires cinematic platformers, and it very much hopes to sit alongside the best the genre has to offer.Įven the story beats in LUNARK will feel familiar to those who’ve spent a lot of time with cinematic platforming. ![]() Again, this isn’t meant to say that LUNARK does nothing more than tread old ground. There’s a lot of running and jumping, plenty of careful planning in your platforming, a reasonable amount of enemy encounters, and a smattering of light puzzle solving. If you’ve played even one cinematic platformer in your time, then you know what LUNARK is going to offer mechanics-wise. If you believe that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, there’s certainly no finer example than LUNARK. LUNARK exists to revel in what cinematic platforming is, and aims to pay respect to the classics. ![]() That’s not a knock against LUNARK in any way, shape or form. There are little elements here and there that go beyond what cinematic platforming has done before, but by and large, this is an experience that aligns perfectly with what you’d expect. If you’re expecting LUNARK to be a cinematic platformer that turns the genre on its head, you’ll definitely be disappointed. LUNARK is very much a love-letter to the golden age of cinematic platformers, showcasing the hallmarks of the greats, which inching the genre forward ever so slightly. The latest example is LUNARK, a new cinematic platformer from Canari Games. Games can match and surpass anything seen in movies and TV shows, but titles like Limbo, Inside and more prove that there’s still charm and merit to the category. In today’s age, cinematic platformers exist to celebrate the genre itself, rather than as a way to innovate within gaming limitations. You’d think this evolution of hardware and abilities would be the death knell for the cinematic platformer, yet the genre persists. This was made possible mostly through the advancement of game hardware, which has been more than capable of mimicking what’s seen on the big screen for decades now. From camera angles to storytelling methods, gaming and traditional cinema are on an even playing field. Nowadays, games are more cinematic than ever. It’s titles like these that pushed back against the idea of what games could be, and helped take the industry to a whole new level. Genre-defining examples like Prince of Persia and Another World very much did that, with Prince of Persia wowing with rotoscoped characters, and Another World going further to tell a tale through its gameplay. You can see how the idea spawned from the desire to tell more of a story in gaming, both through visuals and gameplay. Cinematic platforming is an interesting genre.
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