Mice, Moles, and Murder
Mice, frogs, moles, and murder. These are just some of the parts that make up the world of Tails of Iron. This is another one of those grim 2D side-scroller Soulslike games that you have heard about, but it’s a very good one of them. The look, narration, and combat are very much spot on and so well done that I could easily look over the couple of shortcomings in Tails of Iron.
There are a couple stand outs you notice when you start up Tails of Iron. First, the style is immediately present. The developer, Odd Bug Studio, used colors and thick black outlines to utter perfection. The variety of colors pop out and really help to bring a unique look to Tails of Iron. Later on, while swinging, stabbing, or shooting at enemies, your armor and weapon start to get covered in neon green frog guts to add to the grim tone. The environments all have a distinct look while maintaining the overall style that I believe the developer was going for. The second thing you’ll notice is the voice of the narrator. It is the voice of another very well equipped beast hunter. The voice actor does a tremendous job breathing life into the story, especially for being the only human speaking presence. The use of imagery and text will help point you in the direction you need to go but without the narrator some of that would have fallen flat. The writing crew deserves a shout out as well because this is a well written game and does a lot more with less.
The story, in short is you are thrust into war when your father, the king, is murdered before your eyes. It’s from then on that you must battle the enemy frog forces and restore your kingdom. I loved seeing the mouse kingdom being built back up from the onslaught the frogs brought on. Seeing my “side quests” help bring back buildings or restore the castle really filled them with a sense of purpose rather than just being fetch quests for experience. You move from area to area fighting different enemies and ultimately reaching a boss or two that you need to defeat to move on.
That brings me to the combat in Tails of Iron. It seems like an easy game to pick up but a hard game to beat. You need to pick up on enemies' queues and need to determine whether to dodge, block, try to go in for a couple hits, or take the opportunity to heal yourself. At times it feels sluggish, which may be negative to some people and usually myself, but in this game it just works. I died a lot, but I took that knowledge back for the next round. Most of the bosses, it came down to either them or me with one hit left between us. A terrific feeling of accomplishment filled me when I finally slayed a boss. On your journey you do pick up better weapons and gear to assist you in taking down harder enemies. Some of those items are better suited for different enemy classes and I had fun mixing and matching my gear.
I mostly loved my time with Tails of Iron. My biggest qualm is that while the sluggish feel in combat worked, it did not when moving from point a to point b. The platforming felt awkward at times. There were a couple times I thought I should make a jump only to take fall damage and have to go back around to try the jump again. There is also at least one spot where you have to take fall damage because there is no other way down. When you only have limited health and many enemies pose a threat it feels unfair to always take damage there.
Overall, this game is absolutely worth a check if you are into punishing games. It feels and looks unique while building on certain tropes of these kinds of games. Come for the murder and stay for the undergound mole collesum with Moleberg.
8.5/10
**Note I played on the Nintendo Switch in handheld mode and noticed very little, if any, performance issues. It takes a bit to load into the game but once you're in you should be good.