There?s not really a whole lot of space between Miles & Kilo and the previous game from Four Horses, Kid Tripp. Both are auto-running platformers. Both are fairly challenging. Both are very retro-influenced. I?m not saying they?re identical, but they?re about as close as two games can get without being exactly copies of each other.
That said, there are a couple of key differences that elevate Miles & Kilo a little above Kid Tripp.
For starters, whereas Kid Tripp was painfully hard, Miles & Kilo is a little more balanced (by which I mean easier). Auto-running is optional, for one thing, which means you have a little more time to consider your moves, if you so desire. There are still all kinds of crazy jumps and bouncing enemies that require you get your timing down, but that?s offset a little by the presence of a magical…dragonfruit(?) that functions like a star in Mario Bros., which you unlock after dying too many times in any given level.
For another thing, Miles & Kilo looks a lot nicer. It may still be indebted to the early days of gaming, but the graphics here just look a little sharper and crisper. While Kid Tripp may have been closer to a proper late ?80s aesthetic, I still much prefer how this game looks.
Miles & Kilo also does a better job of telling a story. The plot — kid crashlands on island, has to find a way home — is practically identical, but here the game lays out narrative, has more levels, and seems to flow together a little more logically with boss fights (that work!) and whatnot. It?s hardly complex storytelling or anything, but it does a good job of keeping you playing beyond just the challenge of it all..
Even with all that, of course, I wouldn?t say that Miles & Kilo does anything all that new. It?s a retro-influenced platformer, after all, and the last several years have seen more of those than I can count. But within that very broad genre, this is definitely one of the better ones.
Four Horses provided us with a Miles & Kilo PS4/Vita code for review purposes.
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