Way back when I was a small lad with big and ideas and even bigger acne, one game was king: Flashback. It was all my pals and I could talk about. Sure, there had been Another World before it and Prince of Persia before that, but Flashback was the pinnacle of the niche known as ‘cinematic platformers’. Delphine Software had crafted a game with previously unseen levels of silky smooth animation through its rotoscoped graphics, resulting in the fluid movement of the protagonist Conrad. Flashback felt like a glimpse to the future of video games and, in the process, it transformed my trusty Amiga into an – at the time – absolute beast of a computer.
Fast forward to 2021 and Flashback is now a distant memory, but that doesn’t mean it’s been forgotten – OK, well perhaps the poorly received 2013 Flashback remake should be forgotten, but let’s not mention that clanger again. To be specific, Flashback certainly hasn’t been forgotten by Canari Games, as they seek to bring new life to the cinematic platformer with their game; Lunark.
As soon as Lunark boots up, it was like I was time travelled back to the early nineties. Leo, our well coiffed hero, moves with the same grace that imbued Conrad and the Prince of Persia before him. He runs, leaps, rolls and clambers with a fluidity that belies the chunky pixelated visuals. Indeed, this is the key visual difference between Lunark and its forbears; while the cutscenes are rotoscoped, in-game visuals instead bring to mind many retro pixel art adventure. I don’t mean that as a disservice – in the demo version played for this preview, the characters you meet and the world they inhabit are cram packed with both character and charm.
Take the tutorial, which sees Leo pilot a hapless green droid as the player learns the controls. Sure, you can just follow the instructions and have the whole affair wrapped up in seconds, but it’s much more fun to play and mess around. When I did so, I could see that the game wanted me to mess around too. Leap your droid into a wall and it rebounds, slamming to the ground unceremoniously with a delightful clang. Miss a hand hold and the droid plummets to the ground, your ears greeted by the hilarious sound of a loud bang after a second or two delay. I don’t remember Flashback ever being quite so funny, but Lunark has been created with a lightness of touch and comedic elements that serve it well.
Getting into the mission proper, Leo is sent to a distant planet to recover a mysterious artefact by his mentor Gideon – who just so happens to be the most sinister man of all time. I really hope Gideon doesn’t end up being the nefarious bad guy masquerading as a father figure cliché that he so obviously seems to be. Having him defy this much told narrative norm really would be a twist.
Anyhow, the planet in question is an intriguing delight, filled with bright green vegetation, purple subterranean caves and the occasional massive statue that will surely have a part to play in the final game. Exploration is neat as, just as in Flashback, you spend your time moving between non-scrolling screens. That does means getting used to the uneasy sensation of clambering down from a ledge and dropping down into the unknown however.
There’s some basic puzzle elements in the demo, but they do show promise for some more taxing and expansive challenges in the full game. Crystal Keys must be gathered to unlock Crystal Switches, these will move platforms like an elevator to allow the player to reach new areas. There’s a few enemies in your path as well, though they’re fairly generic bats and giant evil hairy spiders. Fortunately, Leo is ready for action and can zap this planet’s inhabitants with his very Flashback-inspired recharging pistol.
It’s here that I encountered my first gripe with the game; combat can often become a messy affair. Blasting foes from afar works well, but when the enemy gets close the actions descends into a chaotic free for all. Too often Leo was furiously firing away whilst a spider seemed to be – quite disturbingly – ‘inside him’. Hopefully some sort of close combat ability – an Another World style sweep kick is a must – will be an unlockable option in the main game to create distance from an enemy. Without a remedy, my concern is that combat will too often descend into frustrating randomness. Either way, this issue didn’t hamper my progress too much; this was a demo that wanted to be completed, regularly sprouting health providing flowers for Leo to munch on and regain life.
The demo culminated, as all demos must, in a boss fight. This was a mighty fun run-in with a ruddy great big giant spider. Whilst the spider didn’t attack directly – thank goodness, because I’m pretty sure it would have swallowed poor tiny Leo in one munch – it instead sent its spindly minions to leap on Leo. The result was a tense encounter as Leo dodged from platform to platform, blasting away at the big green weak spots that occasionally revealed themselves on the spider’s back. The excitement was ramped up as more and more baby spiders emerged. Fortunately, with some expertly timed roly polys, Leo was victorious. The giant spider smashed through the ground to make its escape, no doubt setting up a boss fight later in the game.
And that was it. Brief but rather brilliant, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Lunark. Whilst too early to be certain, this is a game that appears to bring some much needed modernity to the long established traditions of the cinematic platformer. It’s a clearly a love letter to Flashback but, when the prose is as elegantly composed as this demo suggests, that’s absolutely no bad thing. I for one am eager to time travel back to the golden age of the Amiga when Lunark is released later this year.
