Lucid

I’m always saying how much I love tight platformers and metroidvanias, and then along comes Lucid which delivers the best of both worlds and then some. Miraculously enough, it channels some of my favorites, like Mega Man and Celeste, with pinpoint precision and marries them into an exciting and kinetic blend of platforming and action that felt like a nice jolt through the veins. I’m sure there are games that get either side of the equation right (hell, I’ve played tons of them) but Lucid’s greatest strength is how fluidly it allows the player to float in and out of both ends of that spectrum. One second I’m blasting an enemy with my little Mega Buster-equivalent and the very next I’m dashing over crystals and air-slashing bats with no buffer between these scenarios. Platforming gauntlets give way to tiny skirmishes and vice-versa in the blink of an eye, and Lucid’s easy-to-understand controls never got so far out of hand that I was dropping inputs. I entered that all-too-good flow state in practically no time at all and zoomed all the way to the end of the demo in what felt like record time. Sure, I had foreknowledge from watching someone demo Lucid before me, but I think it’s a testament to the incredible feeling of its gameplay that I clicked with it so immediately and viscerally. — Moises Taveras