Simply Parkour
Simply Parkour is as simple as it gets. You can jump, run, and hold onto zip lines.
This game has some bugs. I can’t load saves at the moment. It gets stuck loading. Luckily, the game is short and you’ll be back to where you were quickly.
If you enjoy simple games, then this game is for you.
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Abstract Relaxing Games.
Simply Parkour is being developed by one developer, Matt Sowards. So far, the game looks good, with a pretty landscape, buildings, funny billboards. The premise is that you shouldn’t fall (obviously), and you need to traverse through puzzles to beat the game. It sounds like a lot of fun, and I know with some work, Simply Parkour can be a cool game to play, specially for the ones who enjoy parkour games such as Mirror’s Edge and want to see more of that.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Synthrun
The tutorial levels had me intrigued, but the subsequent levels made it clear to me that this game is clearly lacking a lot of development and should still be in beta.
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Core mechanics are fine, but at times can lack polish
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Jumping is broken, and the window for jumping is so small that the last chance jump mechanic is actually a safer bet most of the time as it brings you closer to the next platform and widens the window if you have quick enough reflexes.
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The walkable platforms are a mostly useless mechanic as the only real way to use them is to just keep running.
– Real player with 1.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Abstract Casual Games.
Synthrun is a Unity Asset Flip style 3D platformer, it looks like the developer copy+pasted a game template/tutorial for a basic 3D platformer, changed a couple of things and dumped this mess on Steam as a cash grab. That theory is supported by the way game keys were sold off to cheap, low quality bundlemongers, DailyIndieGame.
Anyway, this is pretty bad, clunky controls, bad camera angles, and some of the laziest minimalist graphics I’ve seen for a long time. This is very, very far from acceptable standards for a modern PC game.
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game
Matter
Matter is an awesome, but also very short virtual trip.
You play in first-person view and jump through dynamically forming levels that give an organic and psychedelic feeling. The sound and music seems to react to your movement as well. Where are you? Who are you? Looks like you are in some kind of organism. Or is it space? Who cares, it’s trippy as hell!
There are some slower parts where you run around little planets and search for artifacts, but the main part is “just” running and jumping. You can reverse time a bit if you miss a jump. Gravity seems to be all over the place and changes, so some of the jumps can be a little tricky, but if you just push on, you will be able to get into a flow state and enjoy the game to its fullest.
– Real player with 2.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Abstract First-Person Games.
Ok, I know well the devs, but they didn’t ask me to recommend the game. Take it as it is, but I will try to be as objective as I can.
I just finished the game. What I could say is that it was a delightful dreamlike trip, with very special attention to the ears and feeling of gravity. It’s the kind of game you can’t forget after playing to it. It makes bubbles in the stomach.
Except for the jump, which is sometimes a little bit harsh for me (no air control, but it doesn’t block me), I did not have much frustrations.
– Real player with 2.5 hrs in game
Protorunner
Get in to the flow
Jump, wall run, dash, swing and use the environment to finish the challenges quickly and in style! Or just run around the arena and enjoy the fluid movement. Unlock different areas and challenges each with unique mechanics.
Prove you are the fastest
Compete against other players and your friends in races and compare your scores in the leaderboards. Find the shortest path and then try to finish it the fastest! Who will be the parkour master?
Lucent Bounds
As another reviewer mentioned, make sure to read the controls in the menus. There’s was one super useful jump that without knowing it you would struggle very early on.
Reminds me of Refunct (which you should check out) with a splash of Thomas Was Alone and a drop of Mirror’s Edge (one of my favourite games of all time).
Cool concept. Would love to see what the dev could do with a more intricate world or simply just expanded on the idea for the game.
– Real player with 1.7 hrs in game
Chill and challenging. The perfect game to unwind with and level up your platforming skills. Make sure to read the controls on the pause menu.
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
FOTONICA
FOTONICA is an adrenaline rush, at the very least. A high speed running game with one button as the sum total of a player’s control. Don’t think of that as a limitation. Quite the opposite. Since this is first and foremost a sensory experience type of game, deriving much from little, it would be unfortunate if even the smallest part of a player’s attention were taken from the screen.
The player, as “runner”, travels very minimalistic landscapes. Some are vaguely identifiable, such as rooms in a sort of building. (The more identifiable the terrain, the faster landscapes seem to go by as the eye/brain connection struggles for context.) The runner also jumps, but I hesitate to call this a platformer. It does have platformer characteristics, such as the pink dots one attempts to acquire by contact. And the varying size and levels of platforms. Some game levels, in fact, are almost entirely platforms. These are generally the more difficult; as players struggle to attain the secondary goal, SPEED.
– Real player with 24.1 hrs in game
FOTONICA is a first-person platforming/running game developed by Santa Ragione. Become one with the speed of sound while you try to survive each level on every difficulty and try to beat your previous highscore.
| | Poor | Bad | Average | Good | Superb | Explanation |
| Design & Visuals | | | |
X
| | Minimalistic graphics for a minimalistic game, uniquely designed levels |
– Real player with 23.7 hrs in game
Inertia
I’m enjoying this game! Like some other reviewers, I found the controls slightly off at first, but then I figured out what I was doing wrong. Accordingly, I want to offer a few simple tips that should be helpful for new and inexperienced players:
-Sprinting vs walking: In the Options menu, under “Input,” make sure “Use sprint input” is checked. This gives you much more control over your momentum, as you can either walk or hold SHIFT to sprint. If that option is not checked, I think you are always sprinting. SHIFT/sprint also affects your ability to make movement corrections while in the air.
– Real player with 8.8 hrs in game
The best I can say about this game is that it is fine. The movement feels slow and clumsy but honestly not all that bad. The mechanics range from very cool (the black-orange platforms that break) to alright (the wall running, feels cool but VERY glitchy) to just unneeded (zipwires, just unnecessary, taking control away from the player for 5-10 seconds.)
The double jump is weird, where the higher your initial upwards momentum is when using the jump, the higher the DJ will go. Eg double tapping space will send you flying but trying to DJ after running off a ledge will make you go nowhere. Some of the platforms that move up and down have weird physics too, but it makes somewhat more sense there.
– Real player with 4.5 hrs in game
SATORI
To start off, buy the game: it’s cheap and it achieves the zen experience.
That being said, while it’s certainly a very breezy experience, I feel like I could easily get tired of this game after only a few playthroughs - and I don’t want to be, the controls and game feel are pretty smooth and it does calm you down.
So, instead of a meditative experience, make it a meditative adventure.
More environment types, more collectible types (maybe?), maybe even tricks, some platforming puzzles, multiplayer (though be careful if you decide to implement text or voice chat - a few select assholes could very easily ruin the vibe), a zen soundtrack or the option to load your own music…
– Real player with 11.4 hrs in game
Nicely done.
I find myself coming back to playing about in the playpark for no other purpose than experiencing intuitiveness and a relative sense of lack of restriction. I don’t get a lot of time to game so I do so in bite sized chunks.
I hope it gets more support as a game and would like to maybe see other themed areas, maybe pseudo-naturalistic places, or one in a darker palette. Even a weather/day-twilight-night system might suit it nicely. I did think that the kind of system used in Superflight might work well, colouration and variability of light and map structural seed. It is totally righteous as what it was intended, a meditative solo experience although I could also see perhaps the occasional smattering of multiplay working as a sort of mutual thing, you could even play spacetag(without clutter or direct score keeping ofc). Arcing movements whilst running across walls might be nice, and perhaps some more adherence to some of the vertical objects, allowing low pressure wall runs on most surfaces (ie. not as strong as the main red walls). Maybe curved rails you might lean into. The mind boggles.
– Real player with 11.1 hrs in game
EQI
Pros
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Simple gameplay. Rotate the environment around with left mouse and right mouse, jump from platform to platform, the gameplay is easy to get into while changing up enough to stay fun.
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Nice visuals. The strange, trippy and almost otherworldly look of the game gives it a unique style.
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Great soundtrack. The techno tracks on offer fit the game’s theme and provide some good background to the gameplay.
Cons
- Some puzzles are tedious. Some stages require crazy levels of precision to finish, which leads to some frustrating trial and error, this is at its worst in the last stage when you can’t die unless you go out of bounds, so you don’t get a quick restart and have to walk back to the start and do everything over to finish.
– Real player with 2.2 hrs in game
As advertised EQI is a “trippy first-person arcade game with spatial puzzles, and a synthwave soul”. I’d also say it has sort of an ambient game vibe similar to Journey. The best parts about this game are the vibrant, colorful visuals, and the unique platforming gimmick.
This gimmick of rotating platforms does take some time to get used to, and while I like the overall vibe of the game, certain rooms are extremely difficult and frustrating to figure out. Partially because the game doesn’t convey what you are doing right or wrong very well. It reminds me of games like Giga Wrecker in that way.
– Real player with 1.8 hrs in game
Big NEON Tower VS Tiny Square
I love the arcade aesthetic of this game, and its very much like the original on coolmathgames.com, the only problem is, when i close the app it doesn’t register as closed and i have to shut down steam if i want to play it again. edit: the bug i mentioned is fixed
– Real player with 81.2 hrs in game
Challenging but fun platformer game. Sooooo relieved there are checkpoints throughout to save my progress! Never thought being laughed at by Security boxes could feel so…personal haha :(. Love the neon theme and music, feels like the 80s.
– Real player with 11.7 hrs in game