Appears can usually be deceiving, and first impressions can usually result in us committing to one thing we would have in any other case averted just like the plague. That is certainly one of life’s many curve balls, and the gaming business can also be able to throwing you a clumsy pitch you are not prepared for.
You will usually watch a recreation trailer, create an thought of what you may get once you purchase the total recreation, after which promptly notice that you simply’re getting greater than you bargained for.
A superb instance of that is video games with cute visuals. It might be pure to assume that these cute-looking titles would supply cozy, stress-free, and light-hearted content material, however that is not at all times the case.
Typically these cute video games have a darkish aspect, and typically, they provide surprisingly unrelentingly tough experiences. In the event you do not imagine us, take a look at these deceptively cute video games that provide extra of a problem than you may assume at first look.
10 Tunic
A Deceptively Tough Zelda-like
We start with a recreation that both positively belongs on this listing or actually does not, relying on how a lot you messed with Tunic’s accessibility settings.
Nonetheless, should you determined to go along with the default settings, you may have came upon first hand that Tunic is a Zelda-like that pulls no punches, providing tough fight and punishing bosses aplenty.
It is also a recreation that does not maintain your hand in any respect in relation to quest markers or explaining mechanics. Plus, the sport does not even place you within the footwear of a personality who understands the language of the world round them, making every be aware you uncover full gibberish.
At first look, this will look like a cute little love letter to the Zelda franchise, however beware, as a result of this cute little fox recreation has some chew.
9 Rayman
Limbless and Laborious
In the event you grew up within the golden period of mascot platformers, you may seemingly have performed the unique Rayman title. It is a recreation that seems like one thing out of a fever dream with surreal cartoon visuals, distinctive and attention-grabbing ranges to navigate, and surprisingly satisfying platforming for the time.
However, by way of the ability of hindsight, those that return and play this one once more discover that it’s a notoriously laborious recreation.
That is largely attributable to some slightly poor design selections the place you’ll have to be frame-perfect at occasions to keep away from harm. You’ll usually should fully guess the place platforms have been off-screen, and once you misplaced all of your lives, that meant you would want to begin the sport over from scratch.
Maybe it wasn’t intentional, however this cute little platformer inadvertently serves as one of many hardest ever made.
8 Tremendous Meat Boy
Put together to Meat Your Maker
Now, from an by chance brutal platformer to at least one that deliberately presents gamers a grueling expertise. At a look, Tremendous Meat Boy looks as if a recreation reduce from the identical material as Mario, the place you’ll need to finish ranges to avoid wasting the princess from their captor.
Nonetheless, as you routinely get massacred by buzzsaws and get crushed in enormous mechanisms, you may discover that this recreation is not fairly as light-hearted because the mustachioed plumber’s numerous outings.
It is a recreation the place you may die repeatedly within the pursuit of an ideal run, and that excellent run will solely come by way of full mechanical mastery. So, regardless of appearances, Tremendous Meat Boy is much from a feel-good platformer.
It is a devilishly tough affair, and solely essentially the most expert platforming veterans will have the ability to ace each stage on this indie darling.
7 Crash 4: It is About Time
N-Sane-ly Tough
If we’re being fully clear right here, it would not be a stretch to say that every one the Crash titles on the market are deceptively laborious, as you go in anticipating a zero-stress platformer, and find yourself getting a brutally robust 2.5D expertise that punishes errors and asks the world of those that wish to 100% the sport.
Nonetheless, it must be stated that the latest recreation, Crash Bandicoot 4: It is About Time, positively asks essentially the most of gamers.
Even should you simply wish to beat the sport, you may should beat a collection of fairly difficult bosses, endure some lengthy sections with unforgiving checkpoints, and in addition, you may want to actually step issues as much as beat the ultimate few ranges that signify one of many sharpest issue spikes in fashionable gaming.
And if you wish to beat all of the bonus phases, all I can say is, I pray on your sanity.
6 One other Crab’s Treasure
Disney Does Darkish Souls
If you hear the time period ‘Souls-like’ you’ll be forgiven should you instantly pictured a recreation with a gritty, bleak setting, dreary visuals and a macabre story.
However One other Crab’s Treasure flips the script in relation to Souls video games, providing all the trimmings of a standard Souls recreation whereas providing a setting, storyline, and artwork type that feels a stone’s throw away from a Pixar manufacturing.
This title serves as an excellent introduction to anybody searching for to enter the tough however truthful world of Souls-Likes, as whereas it is quite a bit simpler than the extra established FromSoft titles, it is nonetheless a title that could be very laborious, requires an amazing understanding of the mechanics and methods current to progress.
Plus, it has some genuinely wonderful Souls’ bosses that would give some Darkish Souls bosses a run for his or her cash. So, in brief, for one thing that seems like ‘Disney Does Darkish Souls,’ that is simply the ticket.
5 Celeste
A Mountain To Climb
On the floor, Celeste is a touching 8-Bit platformer that tells a profound story about psychological well being and the necessity to settle for ourselves for all that we’re, good and unhealthy.
Nonetheless, this message is delivered by way of the medium of one of many hardest platforming video games in fashionable gaming.
Celeste forces gamers to grasp climbing, dashing, planning their routes, and pondering one step forward. As a result of should you do not, you may fall off the mountain, or worse, get impaled on some spikes.
The ‘Help Mode’ could make this one a bit simpler. However even nonetheless, Celeste is a cute title that can solely enable its most expert gamers to succeed in the summit.
4 Rain World
When It Rains, it Pours
Of all of the deceptively cute video games on this listing, one might argue that Rain World is essentially the most inaccessible recreation featured. I do know that the numerous critics who wrote this one off for that actual factor actually would.
However because the followers of this cult traditional will inform you, this was a ‘ability situation’ as a result of should you give this recreation the effort and time it calls for, you may come out the opposite aspect having had a really wonderful expertise.
It is laborious to explain Rain World, because it’s type of like a Metroidvania, but in addition, in no way. Basically, it is a recreation all about ecosystems, and solely by way of trial and error, and a real effort to grasp the world round you’ll you survive on this brutally hostile world.
It is a Marmite recreation for certain, however one I might urge you to attempt.
3 Hole Knight
Born of God and Void
On the subject of cute mascots representing indie darlings, I do not assume they get a lot cuter than the little knight in Hole Knight.
However he is not the one factor that is cute as a button on this recreation, because the hand-drawn visuals, cute bug NPCs, cute collectible grubs, and the colourful biomes inside Hallownest all lull the participant right into a false state of zen and calm.
Solely so that you can be crushed to a pulp by a collection of unyielding bug bosses.
Hole Knight is successfully a Metroidvania Souls-Like, mixing the 2 genres to supply probably the most refined and mechanically spectacular titles in gaming.
However, those that are bought on the visuals and Chris Larkin’s soundtrack alone will discover that a variety of the content material is locked behind enormous ability checks which may even have some Souls veterans sweating.
So be warned, the lifetime of this little knight is much from sunshine and rainbows, particularly once you get to Deepnest. It nonetheless provides me the worry.
2 Do not Starve
Spoliers. You Will Starve
I discussed that many would argue that Rain World is the least accessible recreation listed, however for me, that accolade completely belongs to Do not Starve, as this indie survival hit seems like a recreation the place newbies merely cannot excel with no wiki-page always open on a second display screen.
This Tim Burton-esque title will lure many an Inquisitive gamer in to do this one on for measurement, however many will seemingly battle to merely survive on this unforgiving world.
It is a recreation that offers you all of the instruments to succeed, however by no means tells you methods to use them. This results in a variety of quick runs and untimely deaths, and there are solely so many occasions the informal participant will endure this earlier than they name it quits.
I do know an amazing recreation is buried beneath the depth of methods and obtuse mechanics current right here. However plainly I and lots of different players should resign ourselves to defeat, thrown our fingers up, and stated, “It isn’t for me.”
1 Cuphead
Retro & Relentless
Lastly, we have now the sport that’s our choose of the bunch. It presents a cute and colourful vaudeville romp however equally a painstakingly tough run-and-gun Bullet Hell platformer extravaganza that solely essentially the most expert platforming veterans will have the ability to navigate with out pulling their hair out.
The retro cartoon visuals would have you ever imagine that this recreation could be a stroll within the park by all accounts, however that is removed from the case, as quite a lot of robust bosses like Dr. Kahl’s Robotic and King Cube show that even colourful, animated bosses can pack a punch.
That being stated, it is one of many extra distinctive and attention-grabbing fashionable platformers in existence, so should you’re up for a problem, Cuphead is actually a recreation you must give a attempt.
