By Fletcher Wilkinson 
Atomic Owl is a retro action platformer that takes a stab at the ever expanding realm of the roguelike genre. The game has allure with its nostalgic undertone of influences but does Atomic Owl prove to be a hoot of a time or does this adventure fall victim to its lofty ambitions? Let’s find out.
We take control of Hidalgo Bladewing, the prince and leader of his respective clan. We’re given a hint of a feudal dispute between the Bladewing and Void Crow clans, however the game doesn’t expand much further into the premise throughout the runtime, with only small snippets of information that can be found in the in-game lore menu.
Our adventure officially begins after the game’s main villain, Omega Wing, is able to take control of Hidalgo’s loyal companions. This in turn throws the world into chaos as a shift in power puts Omega Wing in control.
Overall, the story doesn’t go particularly deep into the characters and motives. We get dialogue through still animations of our characters. The developers have made the choice to include text and voice acting. However, a vast amount of lines aren’t voice acted while still being interspersed between sections that are voice acted. This can be a little jarring, and given that the voice acting is fairly basic, I feel as though the game would have benefitted to sticking with the overall retro aesthetic by keeping the dialogue text based.
On the topic of retro aesthetic, Atomic Owl has a great pixel art design. I especially loved the external locations that blend fantastic background vistas with the striking foreground colours. We find ourselves in serene canopies, neon-lit settlements and a prison, to name a few locations. Character sprites are nicely animated as well.
Aside from my gripes with the voice acting, the sound and music of Atomic Owl is stellar. We get a truly retro feel with every weapon swipe, item pick-up or special boss attack whooshing past our character. The music is especially exceptional, working hand in hand with the platforming momentum and maintaining the awesome arcade tones retro game lovers clamor for. Every level, side dungeon and boss battle has its own soundtrack, and it’s all overall fantastic.
Platforming and action is Atomic Owl’s bread and butter here. The platforming, for the most part, is solid. Movement through the air feels smooth, with the ability to make minute adjustments mid air. The player starts with the base abilities to both double jump and dash, with the latter also working as the game’s one defence mechanic based on the eye-frames it contains. One issue I did come across was the way the game has your character interact with ledges.
When a player makes a jump that doesn’t quite reach the surface, Hidalgo will do a hovering animation indicating to the player that they can move up the ledge. I found that this mechanic started feeling inconsistent, especially during some of the more hectic parts of the game. A simple grab onto ledge animation and button to prompt the player up the ledge would have definitely saved me some embarrassing falls. On top of the platforming, we do also partake in some flying sections that are akin to Flappy Bird. Tapping the A button will ascend while the left thumbstick is used to steer through multiple obstacles. These sections are few and far between, but do add some extra variety to the traversal.
The combat is serviceable. We have four main weapons and an off-hand range attack that works off a cooldown. The weapons definitely have a variety of uses from each other. We have a whip that gives us a bit of range, a greatsword with extra power, a short blade for quick but weaker strikes and a hammer that can be thrown. The weapons aren’t going to blow anyone’s mind, but as I became familiar with the levels and enemies I definitely changed things up on the fly to make combat more efficient.
I did find that the hammer throw ability was a nifty exploit, as most enemies won’t become hostile until the player is at a certain distance. So I found myself spamming hammer throws during dicey runs where close-quarter combat was a big risk. The offhand range ability is by far the strongest in the game, not only does it hit at range with a hefty bunch of damage, but it also has the ability to chain attack multiple enemies at once. This becomes essential in the late game, and you’ll find yourself peering at the corner of the hud to see if the cooldown is up quite often.
Atomic Owl makes an interesting decision when we first start a new game. We’re given the choice of roguelike mode and adventure mode. This is great for casual or new players of roguelikes, as you can become familiar with the levels and game mechanics in adventure mode before tackling the more daunting task of a deathless run of the game in roguelike mode.
The reason we’re able to have these two experiences boils down to the fact that Atomic Owls levels are not procedurally generated, and instead contain a handcrafted experience level to level. This can be a bit of a double-edged sword, as on one hand I appreciated being able to learn the levels so well to get into a flow-state with the great platforming.
However, after a certain amount of runs, many players may start to feel jaded on seeing the same jumps and enemy placements over and over. It does call into question whether the game works well as a roguelike. Considering the main difference between adventure and roguelike mode is that one sets you back at the beginning of a level at death, while the other sends you all the way back to the start of the game. Every other feature and system that’s in roguelike mode can be found in adventure mode.
Like many roguelikes, the player is able to make permanent upgrades to their character after failed runs. In this case, we have access to 5 upgrades that can be purchased with in-game XP. The problem is I only found that 2 of these abilities were worthwhile upgrading, while the other 3 were either minimal help or worse, completely pointless. That leaves the perks we pick-up during the runs. These drop randomly from enemies, but I found them to be a little too infrequent for my liking.
There are some decent abilities here. We have traversal abilities like triple jump and double dash, making the tougher platforming parts easier, with the player being able to even create shortcuts in places that otherwise would be impossible. The combat perks are your standard burn and poison damage abilities, but they’re always welcome as the game makes sure to challenge you in the last third of the adventure. One notable thing about adventure mode is that you will also lose the perks you pick up during the levels after death. Meaning the levels can actually be harder to complete the further you go on as you certainly won’t have the same collection of abilities accumulated as you would from a roguelike run.
Overall, I wish Atomic Owl had some more creative perks to work with. The game really hits a brick wall when you realise how little there is for character build variety. Once I saw all the abilities the game had to offer, it became abundantly clear that skill and level knowledge were truly the only things that could get me through the game.
Despite the levels being a static handcrafted design, this game can still be quite a challenge. There is a particularly big difficulty spike after a pivotal story moment in the last third of the game. Despite some helpful perks, health pickups are sparse, meaning you’ll be kicking yourself at every tick of health you lose due to a bad dodge or jump. Early levels are really fun to traverse when you are new to the game or even a few runs deep, but they become a bit monotonous when you die an hour into a run and have to mindlessly trek back through the levels again, with no significant changes to enemy placement.
My real issue was with later levels, both with platforming and enemies. You’ll find that the momentum and freeing feeling of the platforming in earlier levels comes to a halt later down the line. You’ll be taking your time with most jumps, cursing the aforementioned ledge hovering animation getting you killed. You’ll also be bombarded with so many enemies and projectiles coming at you all at once that you’ll actively exploit the ranged abilities from both your off-hand daggers and your hammer.
Boss battles are really fun to play and learn. Many moves are well telegraphed but still rely on twitch reflexes from the player. The prison boss especially was a great blend of challenge and attack openings for the player. The only boss battle that I found poorly executed was the last boss. This came down to one attack being particularly annoying to deal with, especially when it was repeated over and over. Spawning on the opposite end of the arena (horizontally or vertically) from the player and spamming range attacks felt like the game getting revenge for the exploits I became accustomed to during my runs.
Overall, I think this game is more enticing to fans of standard retro platformers. The roguelike features felt a bit too bare-boned overall, and replaying the same areas didn’t feel anywhere near as satisfying as other notable games within the genre. For any achievement hunters out there, you may be relieved to hear that all the gamerscore can be collected in the more standard adventure mode. There are some missable challenge dungeons to find and complete, but other than that, the completion is as simple as finishing the golden path.
Atomic Owl has flashes of great moments. The developers have a great grasp on creating a retro feel through the visuals and music. The gameplay is mostly good if only hindered by some slower messier later level design. The real issue is that the roguelike elements feel way too hollow to justify. It feels like the game is trying to pad its runtime by making players replay the same levels after failure, with no substance and notable changes to keep the experience feeling fresh. There is something here for platforming fans, but this won’t be a ‘one more run’ type of roguelike that veterans of the genre would come to expect.
- Amazing pixel art and music
- Great core platforming
- Boss battles feel great to learn and overcome
- Bland story and characters
- Roguelike elements feel tacked on
- Frustrating level design in the late game
6/10
Reviewed by Lucas Morgan
Aegis Malkav