3.5/5 ★ – benhmedia's review of Alwa's Legacy.

A competent, enjoyable metroidvania that falls just short of greatness due to feeling pretty by-the-numbers in everything it does. The pixel art is vibrant and colorful, but the character movement feels slow. The music is serviceable, but nothing that I would ever listen to again. The bosses and enemies look cool, but fighting them isn’t that exciting due to dull combat. The final boss, in particular, feels so anticlimactic despite how awesome it looks. I think the weakest aspect of this game, though, is the writing. I can forgive less-than-stellar writing if the gameplay is enjoyable enough - and despite how harsh I’m being, the gameplay loop is generally good fun. But this has got to be tied with Super Mombo Quest for the tackiest writing I’ve seen in an indie metroidvania. At least Guacamelee is hit-or-miss with its humor. I’ll end on some no-caveat positives: the dungeons are all wonderfully well-designed with light puzzle elements. They felt challenging without being unfair. I really appreciate the fast travel system, how you can find teardrop gems that allow you to turn any save point you want into a fast travel spot. I appreciate that you can temporarily “sell” skill tree upgrades in order to unlock other skills. That felt very generous of the devs without it breaking the game. As I said before, this is a competent metroidvania. It’s just that everything it’s done, many other MVs have done better.