This little indie platformer has some seriously satisfying movement

News
By published

3D metroidvania exploration is rarely as satisfying as it is in Pseudoregalia.

A grey figure jumps and fights an enemy from indie platformer pseudoregalia
(Image credit: rittzler)

Fans of smooth movement be advised: Schmoovement has been found in new indie release Pseudoregalia, which hit Steam Friday the 28th from developer rittzler. It's an exploration-focused Metroidvania platformer that starts simple with little jumps and develops a lot of cool movement synergy as you unlock new abilities.

It also has a chunky, low-poly, retro-inspired vibe, if you're into that kind of thing.

The simple story revolves around Sybil, who finds herself pulled into a distorted and strange castle "deep within the realm of sleep." It's a technically-competent surrealist landscape to platform around, and frames the entire game pretty well, because the real focus here is on platforming and exploring in a way unencumbered by requirements that you do things in proper order or "properly" at all.

As you explore you gain new powers. What starts with jumps gains powered long jumps, wall jumps, dashes, and slides along wall surfaces, to name just a few. It's a game that delightfully lets you use your skills to solve platforming challenges in a variety of ways, not caring much if you manage to cleverly break what seems to be the intended sequence.

That probably will help it be a decently replayable game, to boot, since it's only about  2-4 hours long. (Four hours for me because I take my time and am not the best at platforming but I enjoy it, so leave me alone okay.) 

Steam reviews for Pseudoregalia are very positive, with a 97% thumbs-up rating on 394 Steam reviews. Most of the negative reviews mention the lack of a map, which I find surprising because I ain't need no map.

You can find Pseudoregalia on Steam for $6. You can find more games, mostly prototypes, by developer rittzler on itch.io.

Pseudoregalia is developer rittzler's first Steam release, with their previous works being mostly game jams on itch. Their next project is Electrokinetic, a "roguelike 3D platformer where you build your own moveset as you play." With Pseudoregalia as a proof of concept, I'll be eyeing that with anticipation.

Jonathan Bolding
Contributor

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.