The Messenger (Switch eShop) Review

Since joining Vooks, I have reviewed many Devolver Digital published games. It helps that they are investing a lot into the Switch, but overall their games have either been absolute bangers or they have missed the mark completely.

Thankfully, The Messenger is one of Devolver’s games that absolutely hits the nail on the head. It is rare that we see NES or SNES inspired games that actually resemble the consoles of yore, but it is this game, developed by the talented folk at Sabotage Studio, that grabbed me completely and drew me back into my childhood.

If you cast your mind back to the NES days, or even perhaps the Wii Virtual Console days for those younger people out there, you may remember a series of games that was released called Ninja Gaiden (or Shadow Warriors as it was known in PAL regions). The Messenger draws a lot of inspiration from that series but manages to craft its own path along the way.

You play as a Ninja, known simply as “The Messenger”, it is his duty to stop an evil army of demons from destroying mankind. Tasked with taking a scroll to the top of a mountain, The Messenger realises that he is merely a part of a much larger plan. Soon enough The Messenger finds himself travelling through time, uncovering the true plot behind the demon army and his purpose in life.

This is all told through some reasonably humorous dialogue. Upon dying for the first time, a demon appears and lets you know that he took you back to the last save you did, and that he’d stick around until you pay off your debt. He’ll stay by The Messenger until he collects a certain amount of cash before floating away. Each type of death is ridiculed by the demon, who offers unhelpful advice on how to avoid it next time. The merchant of the game is also rather humorous. He describes in detail to The Messenger about a suit that allows humans to defy gravity, to float like a bird and prattles on about this ancient artefact before simply adding “here, it’s a wingsuit”.

The most important aspect of most platformers is often how well the platforming actually plays. Thankfully I can report that The Messenger contains very slick, responsive platforming gameplay. The game starts out in very linear fashion, where the next path is always obvious, but after time it becomes more like a Metroid title. The Messenger starts out with basic jumping and slashing abilities, and a unique ability called cloudstepping. This allows The Messenger to jump in the air again after striking something with his sword. This is a pretty rad ability to use, as you can jump after hitting an enemy mid-flight, or a Castlevania-like lantern or even enemy projectiles. This can be done multiple times, just as long as there is something for the player to slash while in mid-flight. Some sections require some pretty tricky use of cloudstepping, while others may have been harder had cloudstepping not be available. It seems like it would be a tough ability to balance properly in a platformer, but it is unique enough to set itself apart from all the other indie platformers out there.

As the game progresses, The Messenger gains more abilities. Each one seems specifically designed to tackle certain aspects of platforming. There are some tools that are used such as the Grappling Hook and the Wingsuit, and each ability is used for a specific type of platforming section. Each of them works very, very well. Overall, each ability is very helpful in overcoming certain sections of platforming, but the game’s difficulty never seems to reach anywhere near the heights of classic NES platformers. Those looking for a challenge may end up disappointed.

There is a strong part of me that enjoyed the first section of the game much more than the rest. The Ninja Gaiden style gameplay, while toned down a lot in terms of difficulty, was a lot more fun and proved to be less of a chore than the rest of the game. The latter part required a lot of backtracking which ultimately resulted in a more boring game. The lack of difficulty helped to zip through the sections with ease, but it seemed needless and more designed to make the game longer than anything else. The Metroid style part of the game isn’t terrible, but it just wasn’t as entertaining as the first section of the game.

The art styles depict the 8-bit and 16-bit eras very well. Explosions cause a palette swap in the main character to depict the light from the explosion hitting them, for example. The lack of a definitive yellow colour reminded me of the classic NES colour palette and was a nice touch to the overall art direction. The music is very catchy and suits the mood of the game very well, the 16-bit versions of songs can sound a bit too on the Mega Drive side of things, but they are still very good.

While there are a thousand or so indie games on the Switch already. It’s hard to look past The Messenger as a game that should be in everyone’s home menu. The gameplay is very responsive, and the game is a lot of fun as well. However, the lack of a challenge may be something that would turn platforming fans away from the game. Then, on the other hand, the dialogue is very witty, and it is worth reading every text box that pops up. There is definite room for improvement for a possible sequel, but The Messenger is definitely worth checking out.

Rating: 4/5