Marko: Beyond Brave

Marko: Beyond Brave achieves its simplest goal, which is being a good and fun Metroidvania. It may not go above and beyond the genre's constraints and expectations, but fans will still find the gameplay enticing enough. The exploration and unlocking of new abilities keep the game from going stale. What really holds the game back is the confusing map, which gets in the way of truly exploring and appreciating the world. While not bad, the story and lore are also so bland that they're practically skippable. Despite these, any Metroidvania fan should play and support Marko: Beyond Brave.

If you're craving a new Metroidvania adventure then Marko: Beyond Brave will certainly kill a few hours.

Marko: Beyond Brave is good at its core, but its execution can be quite shaky. It has great presentation and methodical fights with bosses and enemies, but the iffy platforming and issues I encountered just left a bad taste afterwards.

If I had high blood pressure, I would probably pop a blood vessel playing this game. Unless you like grappling with some of the wonkiest, jankiest, and clunkiest gameplay around, there are loads of better Metroidvania games out there than this.