It would be easy to write off Axiom Verge as just another grab for Gen X nostalgia, another shallow fake-retro game lazily using 8-bit graphics without rhyme or reason. The game adeptly captures the look of NES favorites like Metroid and Blaster Master, and like so many other indie platformers, it falls directly into the "metroidvania" category. But unlike the vast majority of its peers, Axiom Verge looks and plays the way it does for very specific reasons. It comes not from a place of ill-informed nostalgia or simply an attempt to cash in on a trend, but rather because it's driven by a desire to capture a fleeting, ephemeral sensation of experiencing the unknown. It looks "old" because, weirdly enough, that was the best way to accomplish something new.
Axiom Verge offers the freshest, most inventive take on old-school visuals and metroidvania play design I've seen in years. With all due respect to beautiful and clever games like Guacamelee or Ori and the Blind Forest, those adventures were built on a safe, predictable formula. Their designers clearly broke down the structures and mechanics of Super Metroid — understandably, as Super Metroid was a masterpiece — and as a result, they felt terribly predictable in their rhythms. You spot out-of-the-way areas or obstructions and can guess which power you'll be collecting to bypass those obstacles and, quite often, the order in which they'll be appearing. Not so with Axiom Verge.
