Ori and the Blind Forest
For: XboxOne
From: Moon Studios
Four and a half stars (out of five)
Ori and the Blind Forest received a lot of press coverage and promotion from Microsoft and, after playing it, it's easy to see why.
Ori is a 2-D sidescrolling platformer at heart, in the vein of Metroid, or more recently Guacamelee and Super Meat Boy.
The story follows Ori, the last hope of restoring life to the Spirit Tree in the forest in which he lives.
A heads-up however: if you're expecting a light-hearted tale, it's immediately taken away from you with one of the most profoundly sad moments I can remember in gaming.
In terms of gameplay, Ori is pretty straightforward.
There's an attack button, a jump button, and a button which lets you create save points.
One down side of this game is that almost all aspects of it are introduced to you in the space of about 30 seconds, making remembering what each thing you pick up does and what it is used for a bit of a nightmare early on.
The save points are a blessing and a curse.
I'm a hoarder, so I would save up my save points for when I thought I'd most need them, meaning that I'd never end up using them.
This, of course, meant that I used them very infrequently, and when I died unexpectedly I would find myself having to redo significant portions of levels.
My advice: save, and save often.
Ori is not a perfect experience, but it's a very, very good one.
It's definitely one of the best XboxOne exclusive games available at the moment, and certainly worth a look.
- Simon Bishop
