Abathor (Switch) Review | Nintendo Life

Pow Pixel Games has entered the indie game market with Abathor (What is Abathor?)A fantasy side-scrolling arcade game from the 80s and 90s. This is a fun old-school hack and slash platformer that will bring back memories of childhood couch co-op gaming.

Golden Axe is the obvious influence, albeit from a side-view perspective, but there are also shades of more recent pixel homages. A heavy metal aesthetic reminiscent of the dark fantasy of Killed And blasphemyAlthough its tone is much lighter than those games. The character designs, powers, and enemies are taken straight from the genre media. Abathor proudly displays these influences. It doesn’t try to do anything different, and it’s all the more enjoyable.

The story is set in the mythical land of Atlantis, where humanity’s arrogance has led to all sorts of monsters flooding the world. A group of heroes must fight to close the Abathor portal and send the demons back where they came from. As well as being a great excuse to use the word “where”, explaining the plot is as easy as it gets. The game is built so you can just jump in and go as far as you can with the lives you’re given – Pow Pixel wants to keep things as simple as possible. There’s some lore text available to peruse between levels, but nothing too in-depth.

The complexity comes in your choice of heroes, each with a moveset that can dramatically change how you tackle Atlantis’s monster hordes.

Barbarian Crantor has a large sword swing and a dodge roll that helps him bypass enemy attacks, which will be a familiar tactic for Dead cells Veteran. Sais favors swords and boards, with a well-timed block that can deflect most incoming damage. Kritias, who has the coolest design, has a fast basic attack and a jumping slash. Finally, Azaes is the resident magic user – he can ‘soul steal’ enemies to boost his attack.

All of the main characters have utility, their unique abilities making certain situations easier than the other three heroes. Crantor’s roll is perhaps the most useful, as it applies to any encounter. Sais’s block is a regular save, though it can’t deflect everything. Kritias and Azaes take longer to master, their abilities requiring multiple runs to exploit the benefits.

In addition to the hero skill levels, there are also traditional difficulty levels. These levels significantly reduce the number of credits (a concept that adds to the arcade feel) you are given before the game over screen awaits you.

In addition to your hero’s basic attacks and abilities, you’ll find summons scattered throughout the levels. They’re designed to get you out of sticky situations, and often appear as screen-filling weapons of mass destruction. Some are smaller but more useful, like little totems that float around to shoot enemies from a distance or floating heads that automatically target targets. You only have one slot to store these summons, so the temptation is always to save a good one for the boss fight.

As for the boss encounters, they follow the old arcade tradition of giant, terrifying monsters. Each zone ends with Krakens, screen-filling lava beasts, ghost knights, and everything else your nightmares can conjure up. These climatic beasts complement a healthy selection of standard enemy designs.

Taking down the demons running amok in Atlantis is perfectly doable solo, but the big draw here is the four-player co-op. The old arcade games that Abathor is trying to emulate were always more fun with friends, and that’s still true here. It’s great to slash monsters as a team, combining each character’s unique abilities and unleashing multiple summons. It also makes some of the boss fights much more manageable.

There is a kill-based reward system, totaling after each level. The player who kills the most people gets a prize, not unlike a crown in Super Mario 3D World. That’s the only competitive element, the game lets you punish those who don’t complete the task.

In the spirit of teamwork, lives are shared equally among the group and only run out when everyone is wiped out. Smashing checkpoint crystals around the level will bring other players back. You can happily relive all the times other players were blamed for that Game Over screen.

It’s not all rosy nostalgia, though. Combat often clashes with the player character’s limited movement. Jumping feels clunky, and the verticality of some levels doesn’t lend itself well to managing enemy attacks. You can end a round early just by trying to hit a group of bats while hanging from a rope. Still, it’s faithful to the gritty experiences of yore.

It would be nice to have some modern quality of life improvements as the campaign progresses. Levels are made up of themed areas, each with multiple stages. Vendors along the way sell upgrades and special items for you to spend gold on. Reloading a save will take you back to the beginning of an area, without any upgrades you’ve purchased since the start of the run. Co-op is only selectable from the main menu, so if you’re playing solo and want a friend to join, you’ll have to sacrifice upgrades and stage progress to get them in.

Despite these odd design shortcomings, Abathor is still a successful take on the arcade-style side-scrolling action games from the first generations of coin-operated machines and consoles.

Conclusion

An ode to the hack-‘n’-slash arcade genre, Abathor delivers an old-school experience, for better or worse. There’s the added novelty of taking four-player co-op anywhere with a dockless Switch, the simple controls mean four Joy-Cons are much more comfortable, and the gorgeous pixel art looks great on the smaller screen. It sounds great, too, and co-op is great fun with a couple of couch-bound adventurers.