Tiny Thor Nails Pixel Art Platforming And Puzzles In Stunning New Trailer

Not sure I’d call it stunning 🤔

I love this pixel art. Looks like some interesting puzzle-traversal as well. I'm definitely interested in this one.

A game with puzzles. Sometimes I am not getting the puzzles in games. Stuck like forever.

This is giving me massive Rayman on PSOne vibes. I'll keep an eye on this one for sure, despite pixel art platformers being done to death at this point.

Visuals are very nice and very well done. Not stunning, but very competent and appealing. I would say “lovely pixel art” or “great retro visuals” maybe.

Honestly I think “stunning” is a mark very few games hit so I don’t mean that as an insult to this game. But NL just uses it for anything with shapes and colours and it feels reductive and makes me less inclined to actually pay attention to the article and game within. Thankfully the thumbnail caught my eye so this one didn’t slip past. Game looks good, tough and the visuals are very nice!

@Ogbert Yeah, the word 'stunning' has been overused as of lately on NL, causing it to lose a lot of meaning. I would call the animations smooth and the art lovely, stunning is just on a whole different level

Still not as tiny as tiny barbarian though.

@Ogbert I completely agree. There isn't much stunning about the trailer, but they do look nice. Very competent for what the game is going for, and for me, the graphics suffice. The core gameplay element is something I am not so sure of. Don't know if it is up my alley.

Looks interesting, but I think games like this succeed or fail at really capturing my attention and getting me to play all the way through on rather small details that are hard to define about how it feels to play and if it makes me feel eager to see the next level, next mechanic, etc.

I saw a world map in there. If they did Super Mario World style branching paths I’d be interested to try it. I’d really like someone to try to capture and evolve the feeling of SMW’s branching paths and how you can take Yoshi’s and power up’s from one level and use them in another level and the switch palaces affecting levels you already played. It seems like the right designer leaning into those ideas could build something awesome from them.

It does look very good, definitely some of the better pixel art I've seen recently.

These modern platformers succeed or fail on the gameplay. I've played a lot that have good graphics, but the controls and core gameplay mechanics can be more irritating than satisfying after a while. This looks like you have to do a lot of mental juggling, as you throw Mjolnir and then carry out platforming as it's moving, but hopefully it'll hit just the right note.

@Ogbert I took stunning as a reference to the game play which was quite stunning.

@RBRTMNZ each their own but I’d hardly say it applies to the gameplay either. Again it looks really good and really solid, but was I stunned by it? No.

I know it’s all pedantic, I mean how often does something I would describe as stunning actually stun me anyway? At best I’d usually be agasp. But it really feels like whenever NL use that word it’s because they can’t think of any other complimentary terms because the game/trailer just doesn’t inspire them. It’s becoming a negative term for me in the context of this website. Which is not always fair.

Reminds me of an Amiga game.

This is looking very good.

Looks like a nice 16-Bit style side-scroller. Also love how the axe weapon and its ability could be use to solve various obstacle puzzles in each levels.

@Axelay71 Perhaps because the graphics are by Henk Nieborg, who worked on Lionheart, Ambermoon/Amberstar, Flink etc

@Ogbert Hey man if you've been jaded by playing other games that have this type of fast action puzzle solving platformering I would love to know about them because this seems incredibly unique and interesting to me.

@antonvaltaz obviously that explains it then, definitely had Lion Heart vibes soon as I seen it.

@RBRTMNZ I never said I was jaded by it, I said it looks good and well made. But it’s not stunning though, there are a lot of games of this ilk, doesn’t take away from this one being good and potentially worth your time, by all accounts it looks like it is.

You seem to be misreading my complaint aimed at NL as a complaint of the game here.

What a beauty. Damn!

@Ogbert No I get that. Having personally been stunned by the trailer I am being similarly pedantic both to assert that I do find the trailer to be stunning and to point out that you're being needlessly harsh towards the author.

Let's all talk about whether we were actually stunned or not...

Looks interesting but not for me. The hammer control looks like it requires a level of precision that will be frustrating for me.

looks nice, if not a bit like an old Amiga game or similar.

Looks interesting. I found the music and sound effects very lacklustre, though. They didn’t match the stunning visuals…

@RBRTMNZ I don’t think I am being harsh. As you can see others are pointing out, NL (as a whole, not just this author who I never singled out) over use the word and it looses meaning.

Ultimately I feel it’s doing a disservice to both NL and the games they are writing about as it’s starting to feel disingenuous, almost signalling that this is a game to pass on when they use that word. And as I have repeatedly stated, I don’t think this is the case with this game, it looks genuinely good. Not ‘stunning’, but well polished and a lot of fun. Yet the overuse of the word “stunning” to describe games that really are not (again because so few games can truly hit that mark) from all of NL almost made me skip over this article. And that in turn makes it feel like NL isn’t always the best place to get news on such things, which I don’t think is true but it is beginning to feel that way.
It’s like if you give every game a 10/10 rating it becomes meaningless, not something NL are doing but a comparable example.

It’s feedback, and it’s clearly a sentiment others feel too from their own comments. Do not misconstrue it as a harsh insult on this game or the individual that wrote this article. It’s aimed at NL as a whole, I guess the editors more than anyone, they can choose whether or not to take it on board or dismiss it, that’s their decision. You don’t need to take it on as an insult for anyone because it’s not an insult, certainly not one you need to be upset about.

Enjoy the game! It looks good! I have never said anything to the contrary.

There are a lot of precision platformers and puzzle platformers, but this seems like a precision puzzle platformer, which I can't think of examples for.