The studio behind the best metroidvania of 2021 has a new game coming out next month—and I'm dropping everything to play it

It looks like a fairly orthodox 8-bit platformer on the surface, but Astalon: Tears of the Earth is among my favourite modern metroidvanias. Its class-based combat and exploration is thoroughly engrossing, the depth of its secrets astonishing, and most importantly, it's a sumptuous feast for pixel art enthusiasts. If you like metroidvanias I'm begging you to play it. 2021 was a huge year for metroidvanias—think Axiom Verge 2, Ender Lilies—but this was better than all of them.

The creators of that underrated gem, LABS Works, has been working on Lovish ever since, which was originally meant to release this time last year. It's not a metroidvania this time, but rather a single-screen platformer mixing simple Astalon-style combat with puzzles.

I played the demo last year and goddamn does this game feel good. While the puzzles generally boil down to "grab key, reach exit", the final game promises over 50 levels, so who knows where the team will take it. At the end of every level there's a randomized "event scene" pulled from "hundreds of outcomes", which include interactions with a huge cast of characters, as well as loot and/or boss battles.

LABS Works is again working with Matt Kap, who's responsible for the pixel art and soundtrack. Kap also worked on the cult classic Castle in the Darkness, which is another brilliant metroidvania I think you have to play, especially ahead of its long in-development sequel. Kap's pixel art is rarely as elaborate as something like Blasphemous, to pull one example out of the air, but its chunky high-contrast approach is immediately recognisable once you've played any of the games he's been involved in (see the aforementioned games, but also 1001 Spikes). Anyone with even a lingering fondness for the 8-bit era will be pleased.

I've been waiting for this thing for ages, but now it's upon us: Lovish will finally hit Steam on February 5. There's a free demo live right now, and I urge you to try it.

Here's the release date trailer: