Playing Terrian Saga: KR-17 is like reliving the days of my youth. As you may have already guessed, Terrian Saga: KR-17 is one of the indie titles that puts its emphasis on the retro inspired platformer games of days long since passed.
While many games use sprites to call back days of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System or even the original Nintendo Entertainment System, Terrian Saga: KR-17 feel like it’s channeling the even older games on the PC by the famed Apogee development studio. The game feels closer to the early pixel based Duke Nukem series that anything else.
This helps to make Terrian Sage: KR-17 standout among what has quickly become a crowded field of retro inspired games. The sprites are large and colorful and the entire game is backed by an equally charming soundtrack.
Developers Wonderfling have crafted a really engaging experience that will see you wanting to keep playing over and over again. Each of the games stages are littered with save points that can be activated at anytime in any location so that when you die you never feel the utter frustration of having to start from the very beginning of a stage.
The game is broken up over sixty stages across nine different zones and each offers a unique experience. The stages vary in size, but all share a vibrant color palette. Stages are also not always laid out in a linear pattern allowing for a sense of exploration especially when you add power-ups into the mix.
You have access to a number of additional weapons such as mines and grenades, but the jet-pack is the must fun when acquired. The jet-pack allows you to access areas that are well out of your reach, but it also encourages you to explore and find new areas for additional rewards.
You can fire your companion, a bullet by the name of J1M to reach new area that can only be accessed by him as well as having him open up new areas that are blocked off to you. The two companions will also begin to learn more and more about each other as the game plays out giving the player a deeper connection with the games story. While their adventure isn’t anything to write home about, it does serve its purpose and the interactions between the two, especially during cut scene bits is a lot of fun to see.
Like those old Apogee PC games, Terrian Saga:KR-17 has tons of collectible items littered about in the hundreds. You can collect gears that allow you to purchase weapon upgrades at certain stations scattered about the stages. This simple collection aspect encourages you to search every nook and cranny to amass gears and it works well as exploring often leads to big rewards.
The military droid that you play as is also charming in his own right and you can watch him grow as a character throughout the game’s story. He beings as essentially a mindless droid that malfunctions while his compatriots were destroyed around him and eventually grows a conscious and an individuality after he is activated to finish his mission of destruction.
The games enemies will do everything to see you destroyed, but this isn’t some insane game requiring a ridiculous amount of skill and precision along the line of I Want To Be The Guy. Terrian Saga: KR-17 places fun over everything else. It’s fun to play, fun to try again, and fun to take on the games varied enemies. You feel rewarded for tackling situations in new and inventive ways with the arsenal at your disposal.
On top of the wild and crazy enemies you’ll also have to deal with eight unique boss battles that will channel all the skills you have learned. These battles will see you facing death on multiple occasions, but each time you’ll learn and see yourself advancing bit by bit. You never feel like you were cheated when you die, rather that you made a mistake, one that you can see and work to correct on your next path.
Terrian Saga: KR-17 is a fantastic game built on nostalgia while providing enough content to keep players happy for a while. Not only that, but the game is available on Steam priced at only $4.99 and is easily worth every single penny.
It’s not a perfect games as the art style will work for you if you can actually remember these type of past games as new players may shy away from the games cute look. Also, while the level layouts are nice it can sometimes become difficult to gauge jumps in tight corridor segments because the layers of the game make it hard to differentiate what you can and can’t pass through. I found myself falling to my death on several occasions because of this minor problem.
All in all Terrian Saga: KR-17 is a fantastic game to enjoy when the monotony of all the super serious intense shooters with grim and gritty stories drive you crazy, and for the price it simply can’t be beat.
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