{"id":7662,"date":"2017-12-12T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/nintendo-switch\/the_end_is_nigh"},"modified":"2017-12-12T21:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-12T21:00:00","slug":"review-the-end-is-nigh-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2017\/12\/12\/review-the-end-is-nigh-switch\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The End Is Nigh (Switch)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\">\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Screenshot 1 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/82831\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/82831\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Ss 451 C935 Fa1 F5965 C055 Cce990947235 D576 Ef3 Ec. 1920 X1080\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Balancing the difficulty in a platform game is a fine art. Even though the genre has pretty-much existed since the inception of modern video games, developers are still often guilty of not providing enough of a challenge or making levels almost impossible to complete. Even in recent times, only a select few titles have been able to truly craft what can be classified as platforming perfection.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a class=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/end_is_nigh\">The End Is Nigh<\/a><\/strong> is the latest title from Edmund McMillen (one of the masterminds behind\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/binding_of_isaac_afterbirthplus\">The Binding of Isaac<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>series and also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/super_meat_boy\"><strong>Super Meat Boy<\/strong><\/a>) and co-creator Tyler Glaiel. Published on the Switch eShop by Nicalis, this latest release is described as a spiritual successor to Super Meat Boy. It\u2019s easy to see why, as the game emulates the punishing yet addictive platform action players were first exposed to back in 2010, and somewhat expands on the concept by including subtle adventure elements. \u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Screenshot 2 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/82836\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/82836\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Ss Bf0 Dc241 C831 D952638 A2238 Eff099 Ba28 Fd0 C24. 1920 X1080\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>The story in The End Is Nigh is focused on a little anthropomorphic globule named Ash, who is one of few who has survived the end of the world and must now endure a lifetime of pain and suffering. It\u2019s the player\u2019s job to make Ash\u2019s existence more bearable by guiding him on an epic quest as he evades an endless swarm of decaying, mutant-like creatures and attempts to make a friend out of the human remains he finds along his journey. In contrast to the violent yet colourful tones of Super Meat Boy, the themes within The End Is Nigh are much bleaker, with plenty of morbid settings and some highly explicit humour thrown in for good measure.<\/p>\n<p>Just like Super Meat Boy, there is very little room for error in The End Is Nigh. This is a precision platformer where you\u2019ll be required to make leaps of faith and avoid lethal projectiles on a regular basis. If Ash hits an enemy, is impaled by spikes, crushed by a block, falls off a ledge or suffers one of the many other painful deaths, he\u2019ll be reset back to the start of an area. Fortunately, the character movement \u2013 including the basics like running and jumping \u2013 feel exactly like the mechanics in Super Meat Boy, allowing you to alter the height of Ash\u2019s jumps and speed of his movement. The controls provide pinpoint accuracy and a high level of responsiveness to ensure you can\u2019t blame failures on the controller. Ash has also been given a few previously unseen moves, including the ability to hang from ledges and what can be described as a ground pound. During certain parts of levels these moves becomes essential to master in order to keep Ash alive.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Screenshot 3 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/82834\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/82834\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Ss 3783211 F9 F493 Aac1 F20 C0844 Aa3 Df81 A224 D30 A. 1920 X1080\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Learning from your mistakes is a big part of the experience in The End Is Nigh. Just like it was in Super Meat Boy, replaying a section multiple times over is quite common; in some cases it\u2019s best to take a break and come back to it when you\u2019ve cleared your mind. As stressful as certain areas may be, the game never pushes the limits. Any seasoned platform game enthusiast should never feel too out of their depth. Provided you\u2019ve got the necessary skills, the speed and understand the patterns of each level, it\u2019s more a matter of perseverance. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The main difference in The End Is Nigh is how levels string together. There are more than 600 levels \u2013 each offering unique challenges \u2013 with no menu breaks in between. It\u2019s a seamless transition from one screen to the next. This design also means you can backtrack within areas, enter levels from both sides of the screen and even via different pathways. Occasionally you\u2019ll be required to backtrack to obtain a collectible that is only reachable from a particular angle or in order to make progress in an entirely different direction. The game\u2019s map, located in the pause menu, gives you an indication of the area you are in and the current chapter. Every time you make it to a new area you\u2019ll reach what is essentially a checkpoint that allows you to warp back to the start point.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Screenshot 4 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/82833\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/82833\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Ss 949 C94 Ad29 Bfdc59411 E497364228 Cfbfc4415 Ee. 1920 X1080\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>If the game wasn\u2019t already challenging enough, there are hundreds of collectibles in the form of \u201csquishy tumors\u201d (again, this fits in nicely with the suitably miserable themes) and twenty plus game cartridges \u2013 with each including achievements and even more levels for players to work through. The main levels are enough of a task, but if you are out to push your platform skills to the absolute limits the long list of collectibles should keep you busy for quite a while. The multiple endings that can be unlocked also further the challenge.<\/p>\n<p>The visual presentation in The End Is Nigh fits well with the overall theme. Surprisingly, the apocalyptic backdrops are diverse enough to distinguish each section apart and Ash, the enemies and the many hazards are easy to spot. In the pause menu there\u2019s an anti-aliasing option which can be turned on or off. With it enabled the smoother picture makes the game look similar to a classic but high quality flash game, which is fitting given McMillen&#8217;s\u00a0past development history prior to the breakout success of Super Meat Boy. Disabling the anti-aliasing option results in the game sharing a closer resemblance with a sprite based game. Either way, the game runs flawlessly in both the docked and handheld mode. The soundtrack and sound effects reinforce all the key themes, and are definitely up to the high standards you would expect from a developer of this calibre.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"conclusion\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>There\u2019s no doubt about it &#8211; The End Is Nigh delivers excellent platforming. It\u2019s a manageable challenge from start to finish, and a game that becomes more and more enjoyable as you slowly adapt to its seemingly unforgiving design. At the same time you\u2019ll never feel completely unstoppable like you would in other notable platform titles. It keeps you on your toes from start to finish and has a balance few other games associated with this genre manage to achieve.<\/p>\n<p>Where The End Is Nigh falls short is the fact it doesn&#8217;t expand a great deal on the initial foundations laid by Super Meat Boy many years ago. What we have here is a spiritual successor, but with the open-ended adventure elements not having as much of an impact on the game as you may expect. The main character and settings in this aren\u2019t quite as likable as Meat Boy and his own game world, either. In saying this, if you are a fan of the source material and happen to enjoy well-crafted and tough platform games, check this one out.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Balancing the difficulty in a platform game is a fine art. Even though the genre has pretty-much existed since the inception of modern video games, developers are still often guilty of not providing enough of a challenge or making levels almost impossible to complete. Even in recent times, only a select few titles have been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}