BENGALURU: Iconoclasts is not one of your typical, purely destruction-motivated platformers. Agreed, it has a mechanic as the protagonist, as opposed to the popular red-hatted plumber.
And the mechanic also uncharacteristically wields a stun gun to shoot projectiles on enemies that look like morphed tortoises. And, alright, it has some very good repetitive music that refuses to leave your head — just like other mainstream platformers.
Iconoclasts also has the equivalent of boss battles (with villains made of hardened steel). But it still is different from Super Meat Boy or Super Mario, where you finish every level to save a princess or find a bandage. The story is a little more complex.
Robin is a mechanic with a sad history. She sets out into her wild, surreal environment — jumping and grabbing on ledges and shooting random creatures. She soon gets hold of a wrench and must solve complex puzzles to manipulate her environment. For example, there are boss battles where you must shuttle between characters and engage in strategic combat or suffer hours in failure. As you get by the initial rounds of tutorials, (the combos get consequently composite, and difficult to remember), the story unfurls.
The various characters introduced (most of them female — it is sad I need to point this out as a merit) have their own distinct arcs and add to the flair of the story. The story is set in a world that worships technology as it has a sacred connection with magic but is riddled with political issues. The 2D environment is vibrant — surprisingly integrating quite well with the tragic story in the background.
Iconoclasts is one of the completed games created by Joakim “Konjak” Sandberg. A host of his abandoned projects are available for free on his website — and they all use the similar refined pixel-based animation which looks more like hipster anime than the normal American 8-bit (like the one Broforce uses). Robin excels in her portrayal of a ‘silent protagonist’ in this puzzle platformer, and succeeds in making turning bolts sound cooler than it is. The game released on January 28 th for the PC and PS4.
Anusha Ganapathi
Twitter@quaffle_waffle
(This economics graduate spends her leisure time preparing for the zombie apocalypse)