Anyone played Axiom Verge? It's a side-scroller like old school Metriod game. I recently played through Zelda III and then Super Metroid on my SNES Classic and wanted some more metroid-type action. This was released on Switch at some point for like $20 but everyone wants ~$30 for the cart, probably because it's discontinued? Anyway, I found it on sale at humble bundle ($10, PC/Steam) and decided to try it out.

https://www.axiomverge.com/

Since I don't have any windows boxes I installed Steam on my linux laptop and gave it a try. I had problems getting an XBox One controller working wirelessly; apparently the original version works fine but the one that came with the XBox One S isn't quite the same. I was able to download and install a driver to get it working. I also had a performance problem in-game, where every 30 seconds or so it would pause/stutter which was a huge PITA on a platform-type game. I switched to nvidia drivers and it helped but after I shut down and started it again later the stuttering was back.

I switched from Cinnamon window manager back to XFCE and it seems solid again.

Anyway, the game is fun, it has a bunch of mechanics that fit well into the 2-d Metroid-style game but that are new/original. If you're looking for something to play I recommend giving it a try. I think I'm about 1/4 of the way through it so I reserve the right to change my opinion.

I've played it some, though I'm hardly very far into it. I like the aesthetic vibe, and it remains to be seen if my increasingly scrub lack of skills will keep me from progressing or not.

I was able to get through uh... one or two bosses without help from the internet and I'm not very good. I got stuck after the last boss I fought because I encountered a bunch of enemies that I couldn't damage and every time I tried to just jump over/bypass them I'd eventually get killed. It turns out you can kill them, you just need to use the laser drill, which is typically used as a tool rather than a weapon. I looked it up online and can now progress again. So far I don't find it difficult although the "secrets" are more difficult to find than in Super Metroid.

One of these days I will finish Super Metroid. Last time I checked my saves were still on the cartridge but I would start over anyway.

Brian, what is your reason for not having any Windows machine?

I just hate windows and microsoft. I hate the telemetry, the constant ads that are popping up all over the operating system, trying to force people to have "online" accounts to log into local machines, the constant updates that never seem to work right, the way you have to open 50 different preferences boxes to set the desired settings for each account on each box (rather than, for example, just bringing some dotfiles like on linux), the force-resetting my desired browser to edge after various updates, the list goes on and on. My son and wife both have windows boxes and I'm the one that has to deal with all the issues.

I agree with some of that but also don't seem to have a lot of the problems you have. I was just curious because sometimes when you bring up something like this game it seems like you have to do a lot to get a decent experience where just some mediocre side piece, I mean side PC, might more easily take care of your needs.

Well, I could have picked a non-microsoft controller to hook up to my linux box... heh. I agree with what you're saying and for years I had a gaming PC that ran windows. It was just so frustrating that I never used it. Maybe I'd want to play every month or so. As soon as I booted it I was bombarded with windows updates that took hours and then I just never actually got to play. I eventually gave up on it because I never used it. Honestly my linux box plays Jedi Knight way better than windows these days. My son has a gaming PC so if I ever really wanted to play something that I couldn't get running on linux I could just use his. Playing the newish Doom remake is on my list, that game looks rad.

Also, F*** Y** Valve/Steam. I unsubscribed from all their crappy ass marketing emails years ago. I logged into steam the other day for this game and it'd been a really really long time since I logged in. They took this "opportunity" to re-sign me up for all their crappy spams. No, really, I still don't want your spam. Leave me alone. Report Spam.

I swear like 90% of the web sites I interact with have these little "subscribe me!" checkboxes and I always uncheck them (or check them if they dark-pattern reverse it) and they just sign me up for all their crap anyway. I know this happens to other people because my wife's email address gets hundreds of spams per day from companies she's done business with. I've helped her unsubscribe from tons of them but then a few months later they just start it again. Grr.

Funny. I started going through one of my gmail accounts, deleting thousands of emails and unsubscribing to things today. I'm going to try to be a bit more diligent with this.

Dude, Axiom Verge is one of my favorite games of the 2010s. Great choice.

Nice. I'm about 50% map now (according to stats when you start the game) and still enjoying it. I got stuck for a while and wandered around aimlessly but realized there was a high cliff thing I could scale now that I have the grapple. The enemies get progressively more difficult and the power of my weapons are not keeping up. Makes it a challenge.

On GOG I saw a comment that Epic Games version is DRM free. Don't know about Steam, assume not. Anyway, looks like something I'd be interested in.

I just finished it, 91% map and I think like ~71% items? or something. There was some stuff I could see but I couldn't figure out how to get. The enemies in the last area were pissing me off so I didn't spend too much time trying to get the stuff. The last boss fight was pretty cool. Overall I think it's a great game, if you like metroid-type games, I recommend it.

Speaking of which, why do a lot of sites call them "metroidvania" games? Metroid was always about exploration, backtracking, finding items to unlock new areas, etc. While like every Castlevania game I played (other than Simon's Quest) was like a completely linear action/platformer "contra but with a whip" type of thing. Am I missing something?

It's named for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.



Also, Zelda is a Metroidvania.

I've played Axiom Verge and I liked it. Other "side-scroller" games that I enjoyed in the past few years are 140, 6180 the moon, A Boy and His Blob, And Yet It Moves, Aquaria (probably the most underrated on the list), Braid, Cave Story+, Closure, Deadlight, Fez, Limbo, Mark of the Ninja, Mr. Bree+, Munin, Outland, SteamWorld Dig, Super Meat Boy, The Bridge, The Cave, Thomas Was Alone, VVVVVV, and Waking Mars.

Thanks, I’ll go over the list and see if anything appeals to me.