MABLE & THE WOOD REVIEW - A METROIDVANIA 2D WITH A TOSION

Mable is a new look at the Metroidvania genre offering players the choice between more power and more challenge. In Mable, you play a girl called to save the world, but there is only one problem, Mable is unable to brandish her sword. To attack enemies, you must use the ability of Mable to imitate his enemies. The more beings you kill, the more you free power, but be careful, because every action has consequences. You must progress across the country by defeating evil and saving the world. You also meet souvenir flashes that can help you determine who you really are.

Mable starts with one form, the fairy. Leave your sword on the ground and take flight before bringing your sword back to you. It will be your bread and butter throughout the game until you find the bosses and steal their powers. Such power I found when previewing the game was the form in spider. You pull your sword and treat it like a grapple, dragging you towards it. The first new form I met is my favorite, you turn into a stone and you throw yourself forward. Other shapes can allow you to dig through the walls or fly more power and speed than a fairy. All these powers consume your power gauge that can only be filled in two ways: the first is to touch the soil, the second to kill enemies. You will need to handle your power if you want to go far into this platform game.

You get a new form every time you fight a chef, if you want to fight. Mable & The Wood offers you the opportunity to skip patrons by finding hidden paths. Do not misunderstand you, the pacifist path is just as difficult as the boss s fight according to my experience. There are also potions that you can buy with precious stones that you get massacred enemies. I usually found unnecessary potions. You earn money slowly and you lose it when you die. Despite this, it s not really a problem because you can recover it by returning to your death place and breaking your death marker. What is a problem however is that if you are touched, you will lose money. You can take it back, but as it disappears quickly, you will almost always lose a big sum. I would see that as a big negative, but the potions themselves are rarely necessary because the checkpoints are numerous and you care for you when activated.

Skiping boss is not a novelty in the Metroidvania genre but it is well executed and even encouraged in Mable. As I said when I prevailed this game, it offers fun possibilities, such as join the last boss without killing anything, but only to follow the chefs in reverse order, with skills that you should not have or for a pacifist race. Now that I have seen some of the other forms and that I can play with the movement, I think it is also possible that this game is a fun race . If you take into account the speed that can be generated by some of the powers as well as potions acting more as a reward for a flawless game, I could see the speed riders have fun with this game.

The platform segments presented a good mix of easier challenges and rooms that allowed to maintain exploration without making back a very long back. The platform sections have a good variety of mechanisms, such as weight-activated platforms, which require you to leave your sword or stone spears that require a good timing. The platform is well done with good controls. There is a good mix of situations that allow each form to feel useful and useful. The initial fairy power can be objectively the best, because it could be the only power you will use to beat the game, but I never had the impression that it was my only option. If you decide to acquire other transformations, some areas will need it, unless you want to find the pacifist path.

I found the patterns well done. The first boss is simple, but as I have acquired new forms, each boss has more and more personality. Although skipping or flying is a basic attack, each boss feels unique. The more you go into the game and the more boss you avoid, the more your choices will have an impact. When I chose not to fight the first boss, I did not think it was impossible to progress, but I found myself for creativity or finding new routes. This allows a decent amount of replayability. I m sure everyone has the memory of being stuck in his childhood on a difficult boss. I am happy to find a game that allows you to temporarily avoid a boss or to challenge you.

I am happy to see that Mable & The Wood was able to maintain the level of quality I had seen in my previous overview. The platform has a good flow with a good balance between the enemy danger and the challenge of the platform. If you are a Fan of Metroidvania and / or a retro style platform game, I recommend that you leave a chance in Mable.