Perennial is a lo-fi platformer that gets around

(opens in new tab)

The Earth might be *checks Google* round , but we haven't seen much evidence of that in games. Sure, there's been Super Mario Galaxy (and, eventually, MaK (opens in new tab) ), however Perennial (opens in new tab) is the rare two -dimensional platformer to feature a giddily rotating planetoid. It's the latest from Badspot, who brought the world Blockland (opens in new tab) , and he's just released the prototype (opens in new tab) of the game.

Badspot (AKA Eric Hartman) intends to sell Perennial for "not a lot" when it's finished, but for now we have a fully functional, albeit unfinished demo version. As mentioned before, the 'hook' is the novel round-the-mulberry-bush perspective, but after playing this for a bit it would feel like a jolly, Metroidvania-style adventure even without that. I will say two things though: watch out for annoying Sticky Keys messages (jump is Shift); also, that jumping sound is a lot louder, and more infuriating, than the lovely music. Hopefully that will be sorted out for the final release.

You can grab the Perennial prototype here (opens in new tab) , and if you want it to appear on Steam, well you're in luck, because it also has its own Greenlight page (opens in new tab) .

[Thanks, IndieGames (opens in new tab) !]

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.