Dustforce

Dustforce! Is a game by Hitbox Team. I was lucky enough to stumble upon a trailer for Dustforce a few months ago. The art and music drew me in as well as the appearance of fluid gameplay.

You're treated to a short cutscene set to a short, fun song, and then you're thrown straight into gameplay, able to start in the tutorial right away. The game is centered around making it through platforming stages and dusting as much dust as you can (done by swiping or running on top of). The tutorial is designed well, with the controls building upon themselves as the tutorial progresses. You see this combo meter, not sure of what it is, until the end where you can see "oh, I get a completion and finesse score!"

At the end of the tutorial, you feel like you have a grasp of the game!

Until you realize you don't. But not in a bad way. Note that this game is very difficult - you'll get crushed in the first few easy stages, working for the perfect rank (done by dusting all the dust without dying (which breaks your combo)).

The death mechanic is done in a nice way, sending you back to a previous checkpoint, or you can just restart the stage. This way, working from just learning a level to perfecting it is as non-frustrating as possible.

You do well in stages to unlock keys in harder stages, so in a way the entire game you are getting better and better at the controls. Very nicely designed difficulty curve - the controls at first can feel finicky, but as you get experienced you realize that they are quite smooth and elegant to traverse the world with.

All of this is set to an awesome soundtrack and easy-on-the-eyes graphics. This game is beautiful, and I mean it...just watch a trailer. All of the aesthetics fit together perfectly - the smooth graphics, melodic-but-not-in-your-face soundtrack, and the fluid gameplay. It's a steal, and it even has a level editor now so there is theoretically an endless source of stages.

Play Dustforce!