Yes, I know, THAT game came out this week. And while I’m enjoying a lot about Diablo Immortal there’s also a lot I’m not too crazy about, and I really haven’t settled on a final decision about it yet. I keep flipping back and forth between loving and hating it. Also it’s not like everybody and their brother isn’t aware that it launched this week, so I thought this space would be better spent highlighting a really unique new game that might otherwise fly under the radar, and that game is MoriArashi from NADARE Games.
This is a vertically-scrolling physics-based action game, with heavy emphasis on the physics. The idea is you start out as a little orb with your goal being to navigate all sorts of crazy hazards as you work your way up to the portal at the end of the level. Along the way you’ll collect little red gems, and there’s always a semi-difficult to navigate to large green gem to collect too, but since the stage is auto-scrolling nabbing every gem can be a major feat. It’s kind of like having to outrun rising lava or water through a vertical stage which is something of a platforming game trope.
Except this isn’t a platforming game, not in the traditional sense. Here you tap the left side of the screen to move left, and right to move right, always floating upwards with each tap. Since any hazard will insta-kill you, you can also collect some friendly orbs who are helpfully sleeping throughout each level. Just run into them and they’ll awaken and you control the entire group all at once. These blobs aren’t stuck together though, and in fact you’ll use their ability to travel through different routes to your benefit.
Also, similar to the Badland games, those extra buddies tagging along with you can be used as fodder. All that matters is that at least one blob makes it to the portal alive, so those dozens of friends you woke up to join you on your journey can absorb all the deadly traps for you along the way. It’s a kill or be killed world, my friends. There are also multiple blob types that each have special properties or abilities adding sort of a puzzle aspect to making it through certain levels.
It’s pretty impressive just how large a group you can gather up, with sometimes dozens of little blobs all moving based on your directions. I emphasized that this was a physics-based game and it feels like every little barrier or object you need to move through has a real weight and bounce to it, making it fun to sort of mash through things with your mass of blobs. Collecting every gem in a level isn’t required, but you’ll earn badges for doing so, so it’s sort of like an additional goal should you choose to go for it.
Throw in tons of cleverly-designed levels and traps, including some boss fight levels, and MoriArashi is a surprisingly robust and delightful little game. I’ve been constantly impressed with the amount of chaos that can happen at any given moment, and trying to go back to collect every gem in a level is that satisfying and maddening kind of difficulty that I really enjoy. Yes, I am dipping into Diablo quite a bit to whack away at some Hellish beasts, but when I haven’t been doing that I’ve been popping into MoriArashi to cleanse my palate. It’s a completely free game with, as far as I can tell, only opt-in ads for bonuses, so no reason not to check it out.
