TouchArcade Game of the Week: ‘Reventure’

The idea behind the TouchArcade Game of the Week is that every Friday afternoon we post the one game that came out this week that we think is worth giving a special nod to. Now, before anyone goes over-thinking this, it doesn’t necessarily mean our Game of the Week pick is the highest scoring game in a review, the game with the best graphics, or really any other quantifiable “best" thing. Instead, it’s more just us picking out the single game out of the week’s releases that we think is the most noteworthy, surprising, interesting, or really any other hard to describe quality that makes it worth having if you were just going to pick up one.

These picks might be controversial, and that’s OK. If you disagree with what we’ve chosen, let’s try to use the comments of these articles to have conversations about what game is your game of the week and why.

Without further ado…

 

Reventure

Every once in a while a game comes along that is so low key brilliant you have a hard time comprehending how it even exists, and this week that game is Reventure ($3.99) from developer Pixelatto. First making its mark on PC and the Nintendo Switch last year, Reventure looks like the most bone dry average retro-style throwback pixel art platforming game. The King’s daughter has been kidnapped, you’re the local hero, and so you don your sword and shield and head out to rescue the Princess. Yadda yadda yadda, we’ve all been here before. Except thinking that Reventure is like anything you’ve played before would be a grave mistake, and I do mean GRAVE.

Some of what I said is true. Reventure is a pixel art platformer that has some Metroidvania-like tendencies as you explore a big open world and acquire new items and abilities which let you explore previously inaccessible areas. But the goal isn’t really to make it to the end and rescue the Princess, or at least not exactly. Rather there are multiple endings in Reventure, a whopping 100 to be exact, and your goal is more to explore the world and find the right combinations of items or situations which will result in you reaching one of those 100 endings. Most of the time that involves finding some obscure way to kill yourself, or to kill others, or to kill everybody. And pretty much every ending is hilarious.

Reventure works a bit like Rogue Legacy in that once a hero dies, they’re gone for good, but another will take their place and continue the adventure. Alongside the 100 endings for you to find are more than 50 unlockable playable heroes. One of my favorite things about the game is how it is absolutely STUFFED with secrets. Hidden walls and passages are around pretty much every corner and some of the circumstances that lead to the various endings are totally unexpected. I never thought it could be so satisfying to continuously LOSE at a game, but in this case the more you are losing the more you are actually winning. How’s that for a motivational quote?

This brings me back to how Reventure’s existence is tough for me to comprehend. Somehow a developer had enough foresight to plan for the hundreds, thousands, or maybe even millions of combinations of things that can happen in this game. I’d be willing to bet that no two people will have the same experience playing through the game, but somehow it’s still enjoyable no matter which path you make through it all. What might initially seem like a silly game that’s meant to poke fun and nothing else slowly reveals itself to be an incredibly in-depth and surprisingly meaningful experience. It’s just an all around delight, so if you’re looking for something quite different than the norm then Reventure is calling your name.