Necrosphere Review

I work in a Kindergarten. This is a very important thing to note when gauging my tolerance and patience. I say every instruction approximately 10-15 times. If I tell one child not to do something then 24 other children will do that exact thing. I get slapped on the arse in a day more times than a race horse at the Grand National. I do all this and I rarely shout. I pretty much never get mad. In short, I’m hard to push to my limits. I’m just an all round pretty chill and laid back chicklet.

It is my high tolerance and propensity to never give up which allows me to enjoy a genre I like to call “balls hard 2D platformers”. I’ve tinkled my way through, MegaMan 2 and 4, knuckled down for the Shovel Knight platinum, I laughed in the face of Sonic Mania, completed Cuphead in single player, and I even became the Hollow Knight.

But Necrosphere now that was rough.

I start up Necrosphere and I think I’ve crashed it. I then find out that while there are only 2 buttons they are not left and right but left and right triggers. This is a huge part of Necrosphere’s difficulty. This extremely unique control scheme. You cannot change it. And more when you get the jump upgrade you have to double tap to jump in that direction. DOUBLE TAP. Please think back to the last time you had to double tap a button in a platformer to do anything. You were probably a fetus. Because anyone older knows not to put up with that bullshit.

I am right-handed. The right side is also where the most valuable buttons on a controller are. My right hand is strong, beefy, dexterous and charming. My left hand however is weak, malnourished and over all defective. If they were twins, my right hand would have absorbed the left in the womb. Essentially what I’m saying is that while my right hand capable as ever adapted to double tapping quickly, my left hand, ever the unwanted child failed to keep up. In a particularly long left jump heavy section I calculated how many deaths were due to a failed double tap, and how many were for numerous other fatal reasons. Out of 100/46 were due to that dastardly failed double tap. It took vastly more than 100 deaths to complete that section by the way. That’s just when I stopped counting.

For all the broken bones in my left hand, I fell gloriously, utterly, enchantingly in love with Necrosphere. It was hard. However, the pay off for each section had me screaming in delight. I am quite emotive during gameplay as a rule, but I have never made noises quite like the moans of desperation I made while playing Necrosphere. It is not for the faint-hearted but it is more than certainly worth your time. Feel the joy.

My code was provided as courtesy.