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By Elyse O’ Bannon
Pixelated Goodness:
Hyper Light Drifter is an indie game made by
Heart Machine, released in April 2016. Hyper Light Drifter was, like many games nowadays, funded through Kickstarter, within a matter of hours actually. Because of the massive amount of funding it received, Heart Machine was able to create a nuanced and visually stunning game with a haunting soundtrack by Disasterpiece( who also did the soundtrack for Fez). The soundtrack does a wonderful job reinforcing the atmosphere and ambiance created from the colorful yet ominous visuals. From its inception, Hyper Light Drifter has been very popular and when looking at it, it is easy to see why. It plays on video game nostalgia by drawing strongly from the early games in The Legend of Zelda series. While it draws from the old, Hyper Light Drifter innovates and diverges from its predecessors to create a fan base all its own.
Much like the Zelda games, you play a tiny
A Look at Hyper
Light Drifter
person with a sword who goes from dungeon to dungeon fighting baddies and solving puzzles. In Hyper Light Drifter, your sword- a laser sword to be specific- is joined by a blaster which serves basically the same purpose as Link’ s slingshot. While Hyper Light Drifter shares a great deal with The Legend of Zelda series, the combat in game is reminiscent of Hotline Miami. As with Hotline Miami, Hyper Light Drifter is easy to get into because the controls are simple to learn but difficult to master. When in combat, you have to take each level slow; rushing in will more often than not get you killed. It is easy to cut your way single enemies but harder to string multiple dashes together to efficiently move throughout a room, dispatching groups and dodging blaster fire. Hitting enemies will stun them, but not enough to actually stop them from attacking you. Each attack dents your already fragile health.
However, following each death, you are quickly deposited at the entrance at the
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