NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits (Demo)

NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits (formerly known as Icarian, a far better name) is a straightforward 2D platformer set in post-apocalyptic mythical Greece. You guide Nyx, an angel-like woman in her quest to find and rescue Icarus: a refreshing change of pace. Speaking of which, the pace of the action is appropriately slow to take in the spectacular backdrops Nyx is wondering through.

Prior interest: medium

NyxQuest represents a type of game I'm interested in: puzzle platforming in an atmospheric, well-realized environment. But this particular game has several issues that have kept it from floating to the top of my list. First is the ridiculous name and confusing name change. Even the official soundtrack uses the old name for the title track. Second is the LostWinds series, which seems similar to NyxQuest, has been well-reviewed, and now has two entries. Third, the game disappeared from my radar almost as suddenly as it showed up there. This has not been a well-marketed game.

Odds of purchase: medium

Playing through the demo level, I started to feel like NyxQuest had borrowed heavily from the 2D areas of Super Mario Galaxy. Both share a similar control scheme, beautiful backgrounds, clever yet not punishing puzzles, orchestrated music and 3D models constrained to a plane. It's hard to think of higher praise for a game, but unfortunately the demo came out a few months too late. I'm already playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii which scratches that particular itch for a while. That said, I'll eventually need something to fill that niche in my gaming and when I do, NyxQuest will be waiting.

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In addition to providing a demo, the NyxQuest developers have a pretty good promotional website that includes an Oracle trivia game, which rewards the time needed to guess the answers correctly with a nice little prize.

Note to the LostWinds publisher: this might be a good time to bug Nintendo about getting a demo out for your series too.