Axiom Verge: What a gem! (Switch)
METROIDVANIA is one of my favorite types of games, and I've played a decent number of them by this point. Not all of them have lived up to the excellence of the two series the genre stemmed from - but many have come close. I'm pleased to say that in my opinion, Axiom Verge absolutely does. The game, by Thomas Happ, had been on my list for a long while before I picked it up in a sale just before Christmas. In the intro, we see a scientist called Trace buried under a mountain of rubble following an explosion in his lab, after which he awakens in a strange alien world with plenty of questions and a voice urging him onward. Starting as an unarmed, confused fish out of water, Trace quickly becomes a force to be reckoned with as he collects all manner of weapons and abilities in his quest for answers. So how does Axiom Verge stack up to the greats? First of all, it feels great. The controls are solid and responsive, plus your many abilities are mapped to the buttons (i