High-profile indie platformers are a dime a dozen on the
Nintendo Switch eShop these days, which begs the question:
how do newcomers continue to stand out from the pack?
Is it still enough for a game to offer the best
running, jumping, and shooting in the business when so many other
platformers are promising the same or similar things, especially
on a system that's still less than a year old?
There's no objectively correct way to answer that, of course, but
one thing is certain: such questions don't apply to Dandara, a
new challenger from Brazilian indie developer Long Hat House.
A 2D platformer though it may be, you won't spend a single
second running or jumping in Dandara, though there's still
plenty of shooting to be done.
Instead, Dandara's eponymous hero gets around her topsy-
turvy world by leaping and bounding from surface to surface in
stylish, spectacular fashion.
Direction and even gravity mean nothing to Dandara; as long as a surface is
within her reach, Dandara can leap toward and stick to it regardless
of its orientation relative to the world around her.
Considering how proven and well-tread platformers are as a
genre, anchoring an entire game around such a unique and
potentially unwieldy movement mechanic could have proven
disastrous for Dandara.
Fortunately, that's not how things have played out here; it's clear the developers
spent a great deal of time and effort making sure this mechanic
works well and feels good in practice, and not just in theory.
While you always have full 360-degree control over the precise
direction of your next leap, represented by the white line during
gameplay, the game uses a separate green line to indicate
where you will actually go should you try to leap while aiming
the white line at a surface out of Dandara's reach.
This is absolutely crucial in two ways: first, it greatly simplifies
the act of casually traversing the game world and ensures that
the unique leaping mechanic never gets in the way of simply
making it from one place to another.
Second, it means the player is never penalized simply for trying
to leap toward a surface they can't reach or in an otherwise
invalid direction.
And it's a good thing so much thought went into simplifying and
streamlining this core traversal mechanic, not only because
that's just good game design but also because you'll have
plenty else to worry about while leaping to and fro.
Combat is also an important part of Dandara, with much
of the game's difficulty stemming from figuring out how
best to approach a room full of dangerous enemies and hazards...
and then, actually surviving the encounter.
Suffice to say, throwing strategy out the window and going in
with all guns blazing is usually the best way to guarantee
yourself a quick trip to the Game Over screen.
Dandara has a basic shot attack to take enemies out with,
but the attack requires a little charge time and has limited
range, meaning your spacing, timing, positioning, and aim
must all be considered and adjusted on the fly when going
on the offensive.
This is to say nothing of all the enemy shots constantly flying
toward you in some rooms, forcing you to stay on the move and
deal with enemies quickly and decisively while also being
mindful of environmental hazards, such as special surfaces that
become electrified a moment after Dandara lands on them.
And invincibility frames?
You'll find no such cushion here, as you get
almost no grace period after taking damage and it's surprisingly
easy to find yourself in a situation where you're overwhelmed by
enemy attacks and die in seconds.
If all of that sounds like it makes Dandara pretty demanding to
play, well, that's because it is!
Dandara firmly plants its feet in
the brutal end of the difficulty spectrum and is especially rough
in the early going, when all that stands between you and the
Game Over screen is a paltry three hits.
Make no mistake, death comes early, quickly, and often in Dandara,
and the easily frustrated should probably steer clear.
But those willing to persevere will find that while Dandara's
occasionally extreme difficulty can veer into unfair territory, so
too does the game reward dedicated play with clear,
measurable improvements in skill.
And the game does offer ways to tilt the odds in your favor, if only
slightly: you can level Dandara up over the course of the game, cashing
in the Salt
collected from defeated enemies to increase your health, sub-
weapon energy, and more.
But even there, Dandara's steep learning curve leaves its mark:
if you die, you lose all the Salt you've gathered and you can
only recover it if you make it back to your body before you die
again.
If you don't, kiss all that Salt goodbye — along with all
the levels you would have gained from it!
This wouldn't be an issue if you could spend Salt to level up
whenever you want, but as it turns out, you can only level up at
campsites.
Campsites basically serve as checkpoints for you to
get kicked back to when you die, but considering how rare they
are, expect to constantly find yourself in dangerous situations
where you've amassed a ton of Salt during your travels and are
desperately searching for a campsite to spend it at before you
kick the bucket.
Normally this kind of tension would feel welcome in a Metroid-
style game, but considering Dandara's already high degree of
difficulty, it can start to feel like a bit much after awhile.
Still, difficulty-related frustrations aside, Dandara's
moment to moment gameplay is consistently thrilling
and the leaping mechanic never loses its luster, feeling just
as cool and fresh at
the end of the game's 8-to-10 hour journey as it does at the
onset.
It also helps that Dandara's bizarre world is a blast to
explore, with its unorthodox settings and constantly shifting
orientation.
While the in-game map isn't quite as helpful as I would have
liked in a Metroid-style game like this, there's a persistent,
alluring sense that you really never know what might be around
the next corner because the world itself is just so singular and
wholly unique in the way it's laid out and presented.
Storytelling is not a central focus in Dandara, being limited to a
couple of short cutscenes and a handful of brief character
interactions.
Still, the game's unusual, otherworldly setting and
eclectic characters play huge roles in conveying the game's
narrative as what seems to be an allegory for events that
transpired during Brazil's colonial period.
Dandara herself is based on a real-life Afro-Brazilian warrior
who fought to protect escaped slaves, making the digital Dandara's
more generalized quest to free an enslaved world from oppression
easy to get behind.
Visually, Dandara benefits from sharp, expressive pixel art
punctuated by painstakingly detailed backgrounds and
memorable character designs.
The animation is particularly excellent, with the dust clouds kicked up
as Dandara leaps around the world remaining a highlight throughout.
The imposing, screen-filling bosses are another
high point and serve as their own rewards for pushing onward through
Dandara's difficult world.
Meanwhile, the atmospheric, decidedly ambient soundtrack hits
right on the mark and helps draw you into the strange,
unfamiliar worlds on display.
It's not all ambience, and the soundtrack does kick in with some powerful
melodies in certain key areas and during important sequences such
as boss fights,
but Dandara's soundtrack mostly operates in the background
and isn't necessarily all that memorable on its own.
Despite a steep difficulty curve that occasionally feels downright
unfair and some minor pacing issues later in the game, there's
a whole lot to recommend Dandara and I certainly liked it.
Leaping from surface to surface never stops feeling fresh and
fun throughout, and it serves well in its role as Dandara's
central gameplay hook.
At the same time, the world feels fresh and rewarding to explore, and it's all framed
by the compelling backdrop of a relatable narrative and memorable
characters uniquely informed by Brazilian history and
culture.
As always, thank you so much for watching, and if you enjoyed
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You can find all the links you need in the video description below.
Otherwise, keep it on GameXplain for more on Dandara, the Nintendo Switch,
and all things gaming.
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