Those of you who have played 2D platformers can understand the love and joy that comes from a game as simple as the aforementioned genre, and with this next review, you’ll hopefully find another fix. Knytt Story is a very interesting game in the fact that the game is one long progression of screens, creating a much larger whole to a single level. The main ‘campaign’ if you wish to call it that, may take you a good couple of hours, and some getting use to the controls, as the game doesn’t seem to support a game pad.
The game itself centers on a little girl called Knytt, who must traverse a seamless world filled with dangers both moving and stationary, without using any sort of aggressive tactics to do so, or in other words, you’re forced to run instead of fight. The game is a pretty basic at its 2D standard, but shows a great deal of time and patience in it’s creative design, as you move through several variously themed zones, collecting power ups that allow you climb walls, double jump, and create a hologram of yourself (a la Duke Nukem’s “Holoduke” ), all of which come into play when trying to get past all the movement based puzzles the game throws at you.
The design is pretty basic, but the sound design and music are some of the best you can expect out of a freeware game. Each one lulling you into a casual and relaxed state, or throwing you into a state of subtle suspense are you traverse the darker levels. The game also comes with it’s own built-in editor for creating your own “stories”, and lends to the over-all intrigue that the game hones. Though freeware games are usually considered a dime-a-dozen sometimes, Knytt Stories surely stands out as a high-quality work of art, and if you love plat formers, you won’t go wrong here.
