Most games that adopt an 8-bit aesthetic alongside throwback platformer gameplay aren’t usually particularly ambitious. They tend to last a few hours and deliver something very similar to their inspiration and call it a day. The team behind Fallen Leaf apparently does not agree with this line of thinking. Instead of being a tiny game aping its heroes, this game provides a package full of obvious love, care, and with a kind of staggering amount to it considering the price and size of the team. The result is one of the best of its ilk and easily one of my favourite games of the year.
Fallen Leaf, despite being set in the mould of an NES game, has a far more in-depth story than I was expecting. While exploring a cave near their house, twins Leaf and Petal find a chest that they bust open. Once they do, the dark judge Xankulos comes streaming out alongside the wizard, Willow, who locked him away. Now Xankulos is free and dead set on judging the entire world, while Willow tasks the twins with grabbing a stone that’ll give him the power to put Xankulos away for good.
The dialogue sticks out almost immediately, as it’s simply extremely funny and packed with character. I laughed far more than I was expecting to, as the text and visual gags are all very well done. The artwork here is also gorgeous, with a huge amount of terrific spritework and beautiful levels. Fallen Leaf is just so colourful and brimming with personality, it’s hard not to be charmed by it all. Visually, it’s like Kirby and Mega Man‘s NES outings, along with plenty of Castlevania in the game’s DNA that makes for quite the cocktail of the greats.
Fallen Leaf is divided into 7 worlds (only four of which have full rosters of levels) and over 80 levels to jump through. Worlds have locations to visit where you’ll talk to NPCs, play minigames and do little fetch quests. Each level ends with you opening a chest. Some items you find can be given to specific NPCs for a heart piece or another item, others can be sold to traders. The amount of effort that was expended on creating such a massive amount of extra sprites just to have them say one or two lines of dialogue is kind of staggering, but it’s just proof of the high levels of passion on display here.
As for gameplay, you mostly run and jump to the right to get to the door signifying the level’s end. But every level also has Peamen, little green creatures that need to return home, and they act as the game’s primary collectible. This too is part of a big sidequest chain with multiple rewards. The controls are precise and shooting and jumping feels just as it should, albeit with enough flair to readily differentiate it from other games. But you won’t only be shooting, as Fallen Leaf has a ridiculous amount of playable characters. These range from Mega Man-esque shots to melee fighters. Characters have different run speeds and unique abilities that makes switching between them useful.
Speaking of which, you can freely switch between them in levels, even without pausing the game. Plus, there are a dozen subweapons you can use in a similar manner to Castlevania. I didn’t tend to use these much, but they can certainly come in handy, especially for short-range fighters that can’t exactly blast foes from across the screen. One of the very few issues
I have with Fallen Leaf is that certain characters completely outshine the rest of the cast. Umbra, for instance, can dash diagonally in any direction, as well as cling to walls. She’s so good that few other characters can compete. I spent most of the game playing as her and Pawla, a quick catgirl who fights with swipes and gets an uppercut with tons of i-frames.
It’s hard to nit-pick too much about this, as some of the characters are just so fun to use that I can’t be anything but glad they’re as useful as they are. And there’s just so much variety to the cast. I seriously can’t think of a game like this with more playable characters. In addition, characters can all be upgraded twice. You can also buy potions (and increase how many you can carry,) but I never used any of these as the game is so lenient with its checkpoints. If you run out of life or fall into a pit, you just go back to the start of the last section.
That isn’t to say that the game is super easy. Some sections can definitely be challenging, but since the game is so lenient, it simply won’t give most players much trouble. As for my other main nit-picks, I would have liked some additional challenges, such as getting medals of some sort for beating a level without dying, or time trials. Plus, you can’t refight bosses after beating them, which is a shame since they’d be fun to try out with all the characters. Fallen Leaf isn’t light on content at all. The game takes well over a dozen hours to 100%, plus replaying levels with characters you didn’t go through them with before is still enjoyable.
I simply love Fallen Leaf and am currently at 99% completion, trying to track down the last few enemies in the encylopedia I haven’t found. There’s so much passion in this game that it’s hard not to walk away impressed, between the huge cast of awesome characters, the beautiful, variable levels, and responsive gameplay. This game vastly exceeded my expectations even though I was very much looking forward to it. The game is simply a must play for anyone who enjoys 2D platformers.
Fallen Leaf: Fallen Leaf is one of the most impressive 2D platformers I've seen in recent memory, from its top-tier presentation to excellent gameplay and satisfying assortment of optional content. – Andrew Farrell
Check out more of our latest reviews:
Exophobia PC review – Are you on the square? | Magical Delicacy PC review – A middling dish |
