Editor's Note
Our following hands-on preview of Windswept reflects our thoughts on an early build supplied by WeatherFell. Windswept will be available to purchase on Steam; no release date has been announced.
An excellent homage to one of the greatest, ever...
Huge thank you to WeatherFell, who provided this exclusive look at what may be one of the most indie-riffic titles that will grace gamers very soon. Windswept pays great homage to one of the Super Nintendo’s greatest franchises ever conceived by its then close cohort developer RAREWARE. The Donkey Kong Country franchise is forever acclaimed by gamers as the platform’s key franchise player that predominately placed the SNES on pedestal, sitting alongside legendary titles such as Yoshi’s Island, Super Mario World, Super Metroid and more. Not to be outdone by its own sequel, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest masterfully superseded the original with excellence in level design, aesthetic work and of course, a bolstering overture composed by heralded video game musician David Wise.
It made its mark within the entire industry as the gold-standard in platforming, inspiring a slew of action-platformers, including a set of sequels that followed. While the franchise had been shelved after its third iteration, and welcomed back with Donkey Kong Country Returns for Wii in 2011, its newfound presence while extremely polished was missing its old school touch. Windswept from Australian Independent development team WeatherFell facilitates the charm and aura of the old Donkey Kong Country series we all grew up on, while presenting its own original campaign, characters and colourful design choices. It’s a tribute to DKC, yet entails its own respective demonstration in how simple platforming can be the most fun in gaming. Lead developer PeekingBoo alongside Lead Art Director Tralexium, and pixel artist Woodspixl_ have amalgamated a mixture of fluid gameplay and enriched design choices that promptly make for a nostalgic escapade.
The three levels plus a boss encounter were extremely fun to expeditiously traverse through with ease, while taking in all intricacies of creative input placed in primary level structure that borrow core mechanics from the aforementioned DKC SNES Trilogy, while lightly influenced by the Super Mario World kaizo community with easily readable set-ups that are fun to execute. Those familiar with DKC will easily adapt to manoeuvres performed by our pint-sized pixelated protagonists, while pouncing a plethora of predominate baddies scattered across the astoundingly gorgeous environments and complex settings. Akin to Donkey, Diddy, Dixie and Kiddie, you’re able to take yet-to-be unlikely duo of a duck and turtle across the vast plains while spinning, jumping, climbing, swimming, floating and smashing their way through obstructions, some that carry a variety of attributes that may impede our heroes.
Some enemies act more like obstructions depending on their intent size, while others are easily defeated with a simple topple. However, conspicuous enemy design will make players think on their feet such as bee’s (another throwback to Zingers seen in DKC 1 & 2) may wear knight’s armour that will either hurt or defeat the active protagonist you’re portraying. This calls for alternate means, with the player performing a spin attack toward the foreboding foe, tackling them down akin to Diddy’s cartwheel attack. Hard to reach areas can be accessed by executing a piggyback and throw, however depending on which character is carrying whom, the mechanic’s physics will change. A fun nod to the kaizo community is the ability to shell-jump, with the ducking throwing the turtle against a wall and leaping off the turtle’s shell to reach tall objects or hidden areas.
A fun boss fight closed out the demo that saw our daring duo confront the threatening impasse of an angry Octopus that seems to be having issues finding his beloved top-hat, taking out his rage on our innocent pair. The altercations consists of simply avoiding the maniacal mollusc’s ink pods projected their way, then pouncing on his head after the kraken lets his guard down. Again, a nice throwback to the Piranha boss fight in Yoshi’s Island, where Yoshi would throw his eggs at the large Venus flytrap, not before it catapults prickly pokey heads while encasing itself in extra vines that shielded the monster from being attacked. While I’m unsure if its soundtrack is finalised, the BGM consists of a nice bop that echoes through each level depending on its overall theme. It fits the title’s overall cutesy aura it’s aiming to demonstrate.
Windswept will quite possibly make an emphatic statement within the independent gaming scene here in Australia, with its combination of awesome platforming, visuals, audio and technical design. Collectables like stars, moons from bonus areas and letter coins that spell out C-O-M-E-T. Ground pounding to discover secret areas within terrain, each objective tagged within the bonus round that replicates ‘Beat the Baddies’ or ‘Collect the bananas’. The cliché ‘love letter’ slogan is overused in our field, but this accentuates its own creativity beyond love letter status. Inspired would be apropos, and homage would be best described, but Windswept is set for a one-of-a-kind release for gamers that love their new-retro style platforming. A called-upon essential to those that love a great platformer, and an unequivocal addition to your Wishlist.
– Windswept is now available to wishlist on Steam.
– Support Developer WeatherFell and Windswept on Kickstarter!
Windswept - WeatherFell
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Our feather-shelled heroes were swept away by a storm, and they need your help! In this ’90s-inspired platforming adventure, take on over forty handcrafted stages to discover the secrets of their world, the moon and beyond!
