Robbie Swifthand and the Orb of Mysteries

The asking price of $17.99 does seem a bit high considering it’s $5 more when compared to the price on other consoles. Nonetheless, Robbie Swifthand and the Orb of Mysteries, even if it doesn’t steal your love away from your favorite platformer, is still a good game.

Robbie Swifthand and the Orb of Mysteries is one of my favourite indies of the year with its rewarding gameplay and wealth of content.

Robbie Swifthand and the Orb of Mysteries is a fine platformer. The quality in its graphics, controls and gameplay mechanics make the challenge worth going through. It's also nice that the humor will keep things light when going through the darkness of death. You may die a lot, and you should, but that's the journey. The occasional frustration of some levels are due to the challenge itself and not by bad design. There's some interesting things to see here. For players who want a little more finesse to their platforming, there's plenty of fun here.

This puzzle platformer has a polished look and some surprises along the way but also has a tendency to get dragged down by a reliance on cheap deaths to prolong itself, which can be annoying...

If you like games which thrive on your pain and suffering as you cry in the corner, Robbie Swifthand and the Orb of Mysteries is for you! Not only does it test your patience and memory skills, but it’ll push your reactions to their limit as it introduces new hazards and throws everything at you without any prior warning. Although you may think that 90 levels in a platformer where you simply collect an orb, throw it at a portal, then escape, doesn’t sound long; the one-hit-kills, traps, hazards, giant rolling spiked balls, and other nasty things will ensure your stay is a long and painful one. Despite death being your best friend within this brutally unfair platformer, the mechanics are solid and it really is a joy to both play and laugh at others as they break down in front of you, unable to carry on due to the frustration taking control of them from the inside.