An early indie is made brand new again.
Platypus originally released in 2002, predating what many of us think of as the modern indie game movement. It is perhaps best recognized for its 2006 release PSP. The game’s graphics were notable for their use of stop-motion graphics built from photographing physical clay assets. Platypus Reclayed goes beyond a simple HD release of the original as it required brand new assets to be sculpted and photographed. The end result is a visually stunning shooter.
Like the original, Platypus Reclayed plays out as a horizontally scrolling shoot-em-up. You’ll choose from a selection of a few different ships, each with different stats. You only have access to a single weapon so gameplay is pretty simple. Periodically you’ll find temporary weapon upgrades. These upgrades significantly enhance your firepower but will be lost if you take damage or after a certain amount of time has passed. By shooting a weapon pickup you’ll cause it to cycle through multiple available weapon types. So while you can’t carry a specific weapon indefinitely, there is some strategy to be had in picking the right weapon for the job. Being smart about your weapons becomes essential as the level design comes with some noticeable and somewhat uneven difficulty spikes.
Gameplay is solid, even if it is very by the book. But the real star of the show in Platypus Reclayed in the presentation. What stood out to me most was that the game never really cheats with its graphics. For example a rotating turret on the side of a ship isn’t rotated by simply rotating the image, it is actually photographed at each incremental angle. When it fires there is a real, practical light illuminating the physical model. I often found myself playing just one more stage to see what the game would present visually. The only negative in this department is that in certain biomes some background and foreground structures can blend together, making unclear what is decoration and what is an actual hazard.
Platypus Reclayed is an excellently handled update that consistently delivers top notch visuals. It even includes the full original game if you’re feeling nostalgic. Level design comes with the occasionally odd difficulty spike in places, but in general provides a satisfying shoot-em-up experience. It doesn’t really push any boundaries in the gameplay department but handles the basics well. On very rare occasions the gameplay takes second seat to the visuals but most of the time they work together to create an memorable and enthralling journey.
