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That said, the comparison to Super Meat Boy and its ilk shouldn’t quite be taken as an endorsement in Alteric being in the same class of quality and polish, not by a long shot. Yes, the principles are roughly the same but there’s a lack of nuance in the overall movement missing, aside from technique like wall-sliding and the like. In addition, while many of the levels are reasonably challenging and interesting there are ones that are perhaps a bit more aggravating. Part of the blame for that lies in the button scheme though. With only 2 buttons to use it would have made sense either to map each move to 2 face buttons and both triggers on either side or to allow you to map them yourself. Nope, instead you’re using only the 2 buttons prescribed, neither set of shoulder buttons is used, and that makes some moves unnecessarily harder to coordinate than they should be. You need to do some pretty quick and precisely-timed switches of the screen while you’re making a tough jump, and its aggravating when clumsy controls make this drag out longer than should be necessary. It can be conquered, but it is still an added misstep. Adding to the aggravation is that as you move along there are levels in serious need of checkpoints. There are some tricky sections to conquer but then shortly after when you get taken out by a trap that you couldn’t have known to avoid, making you start over again back at the beginning? I’m not a fan, and it feels like a cheap way to extend the game experience at the expense of the player experience. All said Alteric isn’t a horrible game by any means, it’s just a pretty middling one. With so many higher-quality indie platformers that are challenging and in roughly the same price range already on Switch that also makes it a tougher sell. If you relish a challenge and have exhausted the other options there’s some good gaming to be had here, just understand you’ve likely played better.
Justin Nation, Score:Bad [5.5]