Never Alone - 5/20 hours

Damn you, Manslayer, YOU KILLED MY FOX. I will never forgive you. Granted, he immediately came back in a new and more powerful form, but there was a grieving scene that made me cry, and as cute as the glowing spirit boy in fox pajamas was, I preferred having a fuzzy animal companion.

Or maybe I'm just grumpy because the transition marked a significant increase in the game's difficulty (no, I'm not, that fox was damned cute). The problem, as I see it, is that Never Alone is not a great platformer. It's serviceable, but in the late stages the actual jumping challenges are tricky enough that the mushy and inconsistent controls can lead to a great deal of frustration. Many times, I missed a jump that I was certain I knew how to make, due to the character not responding to the button presses in the way she had in the past.

It really makes me appreciate the artistry of something like Super Meat Boy or the Mario games. Of course that just raises the question of how it's possible, in this day and age, to make a 2-d platformer that does not control perfectly. It seems like a solved problem. I guess there's a lot I don't understand about how games are made.

In any event, it's not a huge problem, because I managed to finish the game anyway. The story turned out to be simple, but impressive. In every level there is a new fantastic conceit, ranging from the beautiful to the frightening. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the magical elements are well-integrated into the environment, and that gives it an admirable specificity. The ice giant at the end was just an incredible creation, and a suitably epic end to an amazing experience.

From here there's not a lot left to do. I still have three of the cultural insight videos to unlock, and that will require replaying certain levels, but I don't expect it to take more than an hour or two. I think I may try and replay the whole game, and go the long way round (you can actually just directly replay any level you've already completed, and it even helpfully points out the ones with unlockables). After that, I'll see how I feel, although I can say right now that it's short enough that I'd need to play it a couple more times.