Overseer
Maybe I just missed it, but this Metroidvania has been in development for a year and a half, then it just dropped on Itch seemingly out of nowhere. And it’s free. Not “pay what you want” free – there’s not even a tip option. It’s just this polished, good-looking, tight-controlling, 3-hour-ish platformer that won’t cost you a penny. The best way I can describe Overseer is like if Echo: The Oracle’s Scroll had brutal combat, a shape-changing mechanic, and swear words. Oh, and you play as a fox girl.
If any of that sounds appealing, go get it for free on Itch. It’s the most NES Metroid-like game on the Playdate, with all the implications that statement entails. It’s hard, requiring some very precise platforming. You don’t have much life, and you won’t for most of the game, even once you start finding some of the secrets. There’s a map (that’s one up on Metroid), but you can’t add in-game notes to it or anything, and the help icons are minimal. You’ll still have to remember where you need to go once you finally get the power-up that will let you break through a certain wall type. There are even a few Metroid-inspired enemies, and you can only attack in one direction (at least at first).
The bad guys take a few more hits than you expect, and the spikes take a few too many hearts off your life, and the save points are spaced just a little too far apart. None of this is a bad thing. I saw a comment on a UFO 50 review that pointed out how people don’t really remember what playing a game on the NES was actually like. They were mean to you. It was perfect when we were kids. We had patience, all summer, and only enough money for one game. So it didn’t matter if the game gave you three hearts and no saves (looking at you, Rygar) – it was our favorite game.
I hope Overseer is someone’s favorite game. You feel yourself getting better at it each time you run into a wall, either literally or figuratively. You memorize the locations of the secrets. You master the button combination that stuns an enemy then finishes it off. You know exactly where to go next, if only you had the right power. It has a friction to it that is hard to find in a modern game that isn’t a Soulslike, and there are no parries here. Just precise platforming, big gross bosses, and a little fox girl trying to figure out what happened to the world she’s exploring. Good stuff.
(Released April 25, 2025, for free on Itch.)