Sure are a lot of spinning blades in this dream
Magic Week could use a dash moredarkmagic, I reckon.Through The Nightmaresmay not be about spellcasting and amateur alchemy, but it still draws upon the arcane and otherworldly, setting its deviously difficult action-platforming inside the sleepscapes of frightened children.
You are the Sandman, and you are neither sprinkling happy dust on Danish eyelids nor delivering Liberace-haired boyfriends to vocal quartets. Instead, you’re an active fighter of nightmares, diving into the brains of restless kids to explore their most traumatic memories and, ultimately, defeat the monstrous embodiments of their fears.
As it happens, a lot of children dream of2D platforming. At its core, Through The Nightmares is a vaguelySuper Meat Boy-esque runner and jumper, with no direct combat and instant death (followed by nearly-instant respawns) from a variety of environmental hazards. Hazards often drawn from the child’s unpleasant memories: the demo I played takes place in dark forest covered in deadly thorn traps, the creation of a kid who’d previously got lost in the woods.
The level design is competent enough, even if it sometimes feels like it’s serving up a folklore-flavoured versions of collapsing terrain and circular saws I’ve jumped over a thousand times before. And it’s tricky without demanding absolute, to-the-pixel accuracy to your movements, which strikes a nice balance for challenge. Games like these need a gimmick, mind, and Through the Nightmares has a pretty good one in the Sandman’s shrinking power.
Ol’ Sandy can shift between tiny and full-size forms at will, affecting not just the ability to squeeze though gaps but your weight as well. This is deployed in various interesting ways, and often requires fine timing for success. For instance, breakable platforms won’t crumble when Sandman is shrunk, but because he can’t jump as high or far in this state (little legs, y’know), you’ve got a split second to embiggen and leap away before a spike pit breaks your fall. In the demo’s climactic moment, which sends Sandman plummeting through a chasm, you can changes sizes to speed or slow your descent, granting more control in avoiding the dangers that are following you down.
I also like how you can pick up special flasks and drop them to create a respawn point of your choosing, though I did end up hoarding most of the ones I found with the same “I might need it later” paranoia that I always applied toSkyrimpotions. Maybe if the Sandman enteredmynightmares, he’d have to climb a pile of prematurely emptied bottles.
