Sliding Hero

Sokovania? Metroban?

Why

Why Not

Impressions

Sliding Hero eschews the classic 2D platformer formula for Metroidvanias and instead asks 'what if the only way to move was sliding until you hit something'. As a result the main gameplay loop is solving puzzles rather than challenging platforming or combat, and that certainly lets it stand out from the crowd.

Overall I think the dev did a great job translating Sokoban gameplay to the Metroidvania genre; you unlock new abilities in the form of different weapons by praying to long-dead warriors and use them to progress through self-contained puzzle rooms. To clear a room you might need to access and hit a series of different levers, move a block to a specific spot or simply kill all the enemies. Some rooms add environmental hazards like holes, spikes or teleporters while others require a combination of clear conditions. The difficulty felt a little uneven at times but overall did a decent job of straddling the 'satisfying to solve but not frustrating' line.

I have a few minor quibbles with the puzzles; for example some rooms require you to sacrifice some health in order to complete them, which is fine, but stacking multiple of these in a row which add up to more than your max health is... a choice. This leads to you having to backtrack to a fountain, then slide right back through the empty rooms as they stay solved. There are also a few puzzles which require more than one 'loop' to solve, i.e. you're intended to hit the reset button at some point and take advantage of their new state from the beginning. It would've been nice if this was introduced a little more clearly as a mechanic. Overall though the core gameply was pretty fun, even for someone like me who isn't the biggest fan of puzzles.

The visuals are also quite nice, character portraits are particular standouts for their level of detail while the GBA-style graphics add some interesting flavour (mostly in the form of extra eyes). The only real letdown is the story and collectables; neither of which interested me at all even ~8 hours in. That's what lead to me dropping it before finishing; since I'm not really a puzzle game guy I needed some secondary motivation and neither the story or ability to collect cool/interesting stuff were up to the task here.

Overall a solid game despite some rough edges; if you're in the overlap of Metroidvania and Sokoban enjoyers you might love this. If you don't care about story or being rewarded for exploration and like puzzles, definitely give this a go.