Abathor Nintendo Switch Review 8.5/10 "A golden throwback to 16-bit co-op classics" ⚔️ @Abathor_Game @JanduSoft

I’ve covered hundreds of games during my time at The Might GF, and some can pop up seemingly out of nowhere and blow me away, some can be stewing for months and months, as I hungrily follow every dev post on social media, my appetite whetting ever further...and then the final game gets slopped on the floor in front of me in a steaming mess, leaving me smoking enigmatically up at the night sky, wondering what could have been as Bohren & Der Club of Gore play sexily in the background, the minimalist jazz soundtrack to my burgeoning disappointment.

Sometimes, though – I’ll stumble across a game that looks funky – like Abathor – and each tease or online trailer will have me adjusting my tie as steam comically toots through my collar. Good. 

From the early days of its inception, developer Pow Pixel Games promised to deliver us a throwback platformer, and by Jove, did they ever!

A 2D action-platformer, Abathor tells the story of, well – I’ll let them do the job for me:

"The Atlantean civilization has angered the gods. They have sent hordes of monsters to punish Atlantis by destroying the continent.

Players must cooperate and compete to save Atlantis, going through a series of challenges of increasing difficulty. In their progress, our heroes will fight against ferocious demons and primordial gods, against the living and against the dead, against flying beasts and crawling horrors. 

They will dodge dangers and traps and descend into chilling abysses. But they will also compete against each other for the loot and the spoils, plundering treasures and offering them to the gods to receive their favour."

Features:

• 2D platformer with action roguelite influences and up to 4 players in local mode.
• Fight against an army of monsters through more than 50 stages of increasing difficulty and incredible final bosses.
• Enjoy elaborate pixel art and an epic soundtrack with over 40 tracks.
• Traverse the entire continent of Atlantis and delve into lore based on Plato’s writings and Athanasius’ map.
• Re-live the arcades of the 80s and 90s, with features of retro 16-bit games and the influence of the metroidvania and beat ‘em up genre.

This is a game that rigidly sticks to its formula, and is all the stronger for it, due to how accurately it captures the vibe of games of the time. You choose from four characters – the game is playable with up to four players in co-op both on, and offline – and traipse off to save the Atlantean civilisation. 

Each handful of five stages lead up to a boss battle with some screen-filling monstrosity that needs a bloody good kicking. The controls and movement feels righteously stiff – in a good way – with movement, attacks, and obstacles requiring timing and efficiency. 

There are naturally multiple difficulty levels so you can tweak the challenge to your satisfaction, but the fact that other players – should they fall to their doom, or be slashed to death by monsters – can only be brought back by reaching one of the rare checkpoint crystals adds an element of tension when things get dicey. 

I also enjoy how the pickups, health and coinage in the myriad treasure chests have to be shared, so there’s always a raised eyebrow and a gaze askance as someone leaves the fray to pick up a load of cash dropped in the corner, or a growl of irritation if you have died, leaving the remaining players to hoover up all the goodies – with the person who has killed the most enemies getting a saucy cash bonus at the end of the level.

So, the controls are wonderfully tight and suitably retro, with character-specific magic attacks, dodges, powers and speeds etc. How are the visuals and audio? Well, luckily – awesome. The pixels are extremely evocative of that golden arcade age and the music is absolutely glorious, very much calling to mind aural titans such as Golden Axe and the like. There’s a lot to love here, and if a vinyl  was released of the soundtrack? Well, lets just say that I’d be in the queue...with no trousers on.

On the subject of Golden Axe, in terms of comparisons – and very possibly why this game resonated with me so much – is because as I was playing – and loving – Abathor, it dawned on me that it had very sneakily achieved something that I’d secretly yearned for, for decades, and if you would be so kind as to oblige me a brief aside, I’ll explain.

I’m not sure how many folks reading this will remember a game called Blades of Vengeance on the Mega Drive? It was a Beam Software title from 1993 that almost feels like a proto-Abathor in many ways. A coop action-platformer, Blades of Vengeance – with its amazing artwork – allowed two player co-op in a fantasy world, where you could work together to take down ‘the forces of darkness’. It was a game I played a lot with my younger brother, and as much as we loved the idea and premise, it was beset by awkward problems. The character sprites were too big, the camera too ‘zoomed-in’, the enemies and weapon range were weighted against the player, and you just – quite frankly – got in each others’ way as you tried to make the pixel-perfect jumps over instant-death obstacles. That said, the mood, setup, and premise were so, so appealing to us as young gamers. It’s a game I own to this day, and every time in the last thirty years that I’ve booted it up, I get the same feeling. I love the nostalgia I get from playing this game...but I really, really wish it was better.

Abathor is Blades of Vengeance done right, and with its creation, Pow Pixel Games have made a game that would have blown away the Genesis crowd back in 1993, with it’s marvellous co-op action, gorgeous musical score, tight design, saucy secrets, and tasty visuals. Released in 2024? It’s a wonderful throwback title that has been a real highlight of my summer. 

SUMMARY

I daresay that it won’t resonate with some folks as it does here in the Welsh branch of GF, but that’s fine. If you grew up with Golden Axe, Rastan, or Blades of Vengeance, you’ve found your new  grail. I am very keen to see what Pow Pixel Games come up with next.