Surprisingly good: Super Panda Adventures

I've been preparing over the last few weeks for the Steam Sale. Years ago this would involve putting come amount of money in my steam wallet via credit card, which you should always do ahead of time so you don't miss a deal, and then fixing up my wishlist to reflect what I actually want. I don't do this overly much nowadays, since I have way too much of a back log. Nowadays I just try to push through some of the games-that-drop cards, then buy gifts.

Regardless, if you have Steam enhanced installed, you can sort steam by Highest Drop Value. Super Panda Adventures was reliably in the upper section, taunting me to give it a try. Ironically, SPA is a lot of things I didn't really expect it was going to be. For one thing, it is actually a bit Metroidvania, though the levels are unfortunately not interconnected. You do backtrack, though, and the levels have multiple exits that feel surprisingly open. The game's art and play actually reminds me of the "tertiary" platformers of the early 90s, stuff more like Bonk's Adventure and Keith Courage, than mainstays the early Castlevania or Mario.

The game definitely feels some influence from those games, don't get me wrong, but it feels like a big fat mixing pot of platformers of all kinds stewed together with that slightly jank oddness that is indie development. It is what you expect, on the most part, with a little bit of what you don't expect. For another thing, because I implied there was more than one, it's actually a pretty solid little title that I found way more enjoyable than I was expecting.

I mean frankly "indie" plus "platformer" is generally "headache" in my mind.


First and foremost, one of the more interesting things about SPA is the usage of a sword and other weapons. It actually ends up feeling a fair bit like Wonder Boy in Monster World, or just general sword+board platforming as was once far more common than the jump-centric feel of the genre nowadays. You also have access to a small number of magic spells and a shield. The shield is way more interesting than it looks at first blush, and so are the spells.

As stated, the game is very much a platformer and uses the platforming pretty effectively to break up the combat. You jump over chasms, grab onto ledges and hop from collapsing block to block as you move from fight to fight. What is interesting here, when it comes to the shield, is the game has the usual knockback on touch damage / invulnerability frames mechanics in place, which has always interacted with platforming bitterly. What isn't obvious is first, the shield takes damage whether or not you use it. Second, the shield can be used basically at any time - and very much should be. One of the worst elements of platforming is getting knocked around, but SPA allows you to block when you fall and take damage only to the shield.

It gives another layer to play better with. Also, the selection of spells is indeed pretty limited, but the stun hammer spell allows you to mitigate a lot of trouble spots. All in all, once you're midway through the game and you have access to various skills, the combat outside of bosses gets pretty easy, but it gets easy in a way that rewards playing the mechanics well instead of just facerolling the game. I like that.

The game has various ARPG elements; you can upgrade your gear, find powerful relics, gain items that change how your panda behaves and lastly you can just plain level up to spend talent points. It's a bit scattershot, but it gives you reason to backtrack and redo the levels even beyond the game's quests sending you to them, and grinding through enemies doesn't feel so bad when you level every once and a while.

The game's combat is, as I implied, not that bad and pretty fun in parts. It does have a bit of an issue that enemies respawn much too quickly. When you're trying to concentrate on figuring out a secret or doing a jumping puzzle that drops you three screens down when you fall, you're not really keen on 90% of the enemies you've already killed respawning. The other big issue is that the game's middle section is most of the game, so to speak, and very little in the way of new attacks or enemies crop up past that. So you pretty much master slaughtering your robo-foes midway through the game and then that's your lot for the next two to four hours depending on how much backtracking your choose to do.

Super Panda Adventures' art assets are weird to explain. The game isn't exactly good looking, and it does have some issues with brightness in its color palette and things clashing a bit, but on the other hand much of the visuals are pleasant to look at. There's lots of motion and animation, and the backgrounds have lots of layers that shift as you move. Basically the game is a bit visually busy. Some of the business is good, some of it is bad, but I generally enjoyed the little animations and expressions. Stuff has lots of pop, though not always in the good way.

SPA has some elements of a Metroidvania, so I thought it worthwhile to go back and mention that thing I hate about Magicians and Looters, where everything looked the same. SPA sort of goes the opposite direction: the art style is garish and loud, instead of muted and smooth. On the other hand, the core areas look very different, and it just reminds me how little attention people seem to pay to this stuff.

Level design to go with this is indeed pretty hit or miss, and ends up feeling very tunnel visioned. An individual section will have a variety of elements, but they don't really come together well. When you backtrack to look for secrets it can be really hard to sort where you are in the level, and even if you see a relic piece or a key you need to find secrets it can be hard to sort where they actually are. Worse, finding a key doesn't really help if you can't remember where the doors are. The game would benefit from a little more compartmentalization, as with Super Metroid, and a bit more in the way of unique landmarks to help get your bearings.

The music is ... Something. Some of the tracks are pretty good, and some of them are a bit overambitious for the talent of the musician. It's not to say the individual behind the music is bad, just that some of the tracks come off less "exciting" and more "wailing on the keytar" to the detriment of the listener. It's clearly someone trying to set moods and tone to the different areas, so in that regard it is generally pretty successful, but there's a couple tracks you could do with a bit toning down. I don't really know how else to express it, it's like the musician is trying to hit Two Steps to Hell levels and can't pull it off with the wee keytar. He tries. Gosh, he tries.

The basic pattern of the game is sword fighting, platforming, secret hunting and back tracking. In these things, the game is decent. The combat is clearly the worst of the component pieces, but the other elements are actually quite good. The only thing that break this stuff up are the storyline bits and the boss fights. The storyline is simple, if not downright stupid, but the dialogue is refreshing and actually pretty funny stuff at points. It does feel a bit like a mess, but you're not playing the game for the discourse between a super panda in an awesome cape and a robot pirate.

The back tracking could also use a little more organization. You can pretty much expect to use every upgrade to find a few more secrets in each level, which is cute on the first or third pass but starts to grate. Since you naturally redo levels for some of the quests it gets a bit obnoxious trying to figure out if you can or are supposed to get a specific bauble that is just out of reach.

As for the bosses, they're rather odd. I felt like the backtracking through the game and trying to find the relics would overlevel me, but most of the later bosses didn't really come off as too easy. I will suggest that the game's talent system is a little disingenuous when you base your leveling off level to level combat, when the stuff you need for bosses is completely different. The only big complaint I have, though, is that several of them have an "I get it" moment that then still requires several further minutes of mashing away on the enemy. Not entirely sure if this comes down to a poor talent spec, I'm tempted to say yes.

All in all, SPA is a decent piece of indie work that shines at being an irreverent and silly romp of a platformer. For something I picked up in a greenlight bundle, I was pretty pleased with the experience and found it did its job well. It isn't the best game I've played this year, but it's the most surprising at the least.