Forgone is an action platformer and was both developed and published by the indie company Big Blue Bubble. They’ve been around for about 15 years and have over 100 games under their belt. I’ve looked through some of their catalogs and found that they have a wide range of video game types and graphic design styles so Forgone is definitely unique compared to the rest of their endeavors.

When first starting up the game I’m met with the protagonist. Personally, I found her character design to be “okay”, she’s average all around (typical race, body type, outfit, etc.) It made me feel like there wasn’t enough thought into making her look different or compelling. Honestly, the only thing different or interesting about her design would be her hair.

This character design gripe aside the art style for this game is lovely. For a pixel/retro look, it’s stunning but when I first played it, it almost felt like the art design was being held back, like they took a pretty game and made it retro. This is confirmed in an interview with Karen Chalmers the marketing director of Big Blue Bubble. The game is actually 3D to make it “fluid and pretty” but to maintain the old school look they have a pixel shader that runs as you play.

Honestly, after knowing this and going back and playing it more I found the art design more enjoyable knowing that what I observed before was intentional and I can respect the technique enough to say that while it may not be my style many people find it beautiful for its genre and I can see why. This also gives the game major points in creativity with how they accomplished this.

I feel as though the developers were also creative with the gaming mechanics. The different weapon options were incredibly fun and the fact that they had an RPG element with the loot and skill tree makes it fun for a wider audience. If you prefer a rogue over a warrior type in gameplay then you have that option. One thing I greatly appreciated with the weapons were the different fighting styles/ weight that came with it. She has different animations for her combos and you can really see the contrast when you use bigger guns and heavier swords.

Generally speaking, the game is incredibly user-friendly as far as getting the basic concepts, navigating menus, and general gameplay, but in my opinion if you aren’t well versed in these kinds of games I feel as though the difficulty levels raise pretty quickly. So if you are here for a challenge this is the game for you. If you are more casual or a noob platformer like me then maybe this isn’t for you or you should hold off until it’s on sale.

That being said, we get to my favorite question. Is it worth that green? I COULD nitpick about the little things, like how I think her walking animation is awkward or how her animation when she gets powered up to be kind of disappointing and not at all as epic as they think it looks, BUT the reality is that this is an indie game and I have my own personal taste that may not apply to everyone. They also took into consideration having a budget for voice acting, which in my experience with platformers most don’t bother and stick to lines of dialogue typing out across the screen like most retro games. So with that in mind for all the platformer lovers out there this is 100% worth it, it’s beautiful, fluid (because it’s secretly 3D), and challenging you’ll love this game. If you are like me and platformers aren’t really your jam then maybe not so much worth 30$ but to each their own.