Palette swaps change the primary colours of the game’s art style. Player styles give unique player native abilities that can make future playthroughs easier or harder depending on their skill level. Downwell uses randomly generated power ups that increases the player’s defence or attack capabilities and the player is able to decide on what is best for their skill and situation depending on what they have on hand.Īfter the end of a playthrough, the player unlocks palette swaps and player styles after collecting a set number of gems. It only offers more challenge by making enemies faster and more unpredictable. When a game like Pac Man is understood, it doesn’t offer a way of adjusting difficulty to suit the player’s mastery and understanding of its mechanics. This makes Downwell have the qualities of iconic arcade games such as Pac Man, but has a layer of mechanical sophistication that is easy to understand, but difficult and engaging to master. Hazards are pure red, enemies indicate they can be jumped on by being predominantly white with a hint of red, walkable and jumpable objects being white and a black background to make colour stand out. This rapid fire decision making is possible because of the art style.

When enough gems are collected, the player enters a gem high that increases the power of their attack, but withers out if the player can’t maintain a constant flow of gems. Rooms the player encounters during their descent offer a break from the fast action and have power ups that change the attributes of the shooting attack and give health or ammo. This is expanded with randomly generated power ups at the end of a level that add beneficial abilities, such as collecting gems refilling ammo and creating a blast by stomping on enemies. Downwell artwork by BlueASIS, “ Jelly Smash!“

Downwell vita review