My Wallet's heart is the Cards: Freedom Fall

I don't know when or where I set out to buy Freedom Fall; I think I remember this game being reviewed on like ... I have absolutely no idea where I originally got the idea in my head that I wanted to buy Freedom Fall. Like an alcoholic, I seem to yearn for the self abuse inherent to my play experience vis-a-vis torture platformers. I am not good at torture platformers and I do not generally enjoy them. But I look back fondly on like, They Bleed Pixels or Rush Bros in spite of being terrible at them. Admittedly, I did find Gianna Sisters Twisted whatever to be like nails jammed into my eyelids, but I've been told by people who actually like torture platformers that game is unfun.

But I did, some point in the past, want Freedom Fall. I remember thinking it looked good to me, for reasons I can't articulate simply because I may have dreamed the entire thing up. Or, one supposes, the game could be a clone of another game I wanted. This has happened before.

So basic run down: Freedom Fall is a sharp and clear SNES looking platformer primarily about going down, although many of the later levels also go up, around, sideways and rapidly lose the whole going down thing. I actually do take this as something of a mark against the game, since the first few levels are really neat for how it almost feels like a combination of like ... Actually it just feels like that one section in Megaman 2. Or Tetris. As you can see from above, the game is pretty short, unless I missed some option to turn on half the levels or something.

Which would be dumb. Regardless; short game, short review.

Like I said, the game is sharp and clear looking. The art assets are good, animations are very SNES in their simplicity. Beyond the subdued in comparison to other torture platformers gore, the game is generally a cheerful looking set up, with the protagonist quite the dashing looking young rogue and the terrain reminding me a little of mario or sonic in the right ways. The music is good, the sounds are limited but good, its a fine platformer that doesn't ... over-spray like say Gianna Sisters, which wraps back around to eye torture.

Platformerwise the controls are pretty good. I wouldn't say pixel perfect, and the ledge grab thing feels really finicky, but I had very few deaths I thought were bullshit. The level design is good, but this kinda leads into my problem with the game.

So if I think back to my favorite platformer of all time, its Sonic 3 and Knuckles. S3&K divides levels into two acts, introducing then refining gimmicks, and you could probably extend the game out with a third act. Freedom Fall is a short game, but it isn't for lack of different gimmicks or ideas. There's lots of stuff the game just doesn't use enough of, lots of art assets they could have pushed into a couple more levels. I find it a little strange, because the game does great in all the hard stuff, and there are lots of things I could have done with seeing a bit more.

Basically, it could have used "another act" in each proverbial section.

I wonder if they just felt like the game's story - as simple as it was - could only carry so much content. While I liked the story graffiti which feels very natural and helps break up the visuals, I don't feel like it was that imperative, so I'm left wondering why the game didn't have a couple more levels. There's still leaderboards and refining your play, and I'm sure hard mode is hard, but I just wonder how much you can justify at the game's offering price point.

In short (heh), I quite liked Freedom Fall, but it is too short and probably not worth even a sale price purchase. If you see it for cheap or in a decent priced bundle, and you like platformers, I would recommend it, but the game disappoints in how its finally a torture platformer I enjoyed (probably because it isn't so hard) but it never really puts up the wall and has none of the usual longevity.