Given the sheer volume of metroidvania platformers out there, I imagine it’s tough for new ones to stand out in the field. Usually you need some kind of hook or gimmick to really stand out, or else you risk getting lost in the shuffle.
Unfortunately, that’s Clockwork Ambrosia’s problem. It’s a solidly above-average metroidvania that looks like it could’ve come out at any point in the last forty years or so, and it plays pretty much as you’d expect it to. If you pick it up, I can’t imagine you’d be too disappointed in it (though I have one or two nitpicks that I’ll get to shortly) but I also don’t know that there’s anything that makes it stand out in a crowded field.
The game’s biggest selling point is that you can arm your character to the teeth – which, as selling points go, isn’t a bad one. Your character gathers all kinds of crazy weapons as she goes along, building up from mere lasers to missiles, grenades, and other similarly high-powered weaponry. She’s able to use them to blast away everything that gets in her path, and to Clockwork Ambrosia’s credit, the combat is pretty enjoyable as a result.
Of course, this being a metroidvania platformer, the main draw is supposed to be exploration, and that’s where I’m not sure that Clockwork Ambrosia quite stands up. It’s got a huge map, which is good, but it’s also fairly stingy with save points, so it’s not uncommon to uncover a whole bunch of new terrain, only to die and find that you’ve lost a whole bunch of progress. Similarly, it takes awhile for fast travel to be unlocked, which means you spend more time than feels necessary backtracking over areas that you’ve already seen.
Is that enough to mean that you should avoid Clockwork Ambrosia? Definitely not. But it also doesn’t have the kind of plusses that mean you need to check it out immediately, either. It’s a solid enough metroidvania platformer, but in this day and age it’s hard for that to be enough.
OI Games provided us with a Clockwork Ambrosia PC code for review purposes.
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