Review: Lunark – The Love Letter The Cinematic Platforming Genre Deserves

That’s both a moon AND a space station.

Lunark sends players into the retro-future we all thought the ’80s would be. It brings a world of flying cars and corrupt mega-corporations to life with vibrant pixel graphics and rotoscope animation. At its best moments, Lunark is an effective love letter to the cinematic platformer, a genre of gaming that doesn’t get much attention these days. Occasionally, though, it serves to remind us how far game design has come.

Loading up Lunark is just like entering a time machine. Everything in the game, from the music to the plot to the overall aesthetic, is inspired by the cinematic platformer genre. Unlike Mario, who can turn in mid-air to make physically impossible jumps look easy, our hero Leo’s movements are grounded in some aspect of reality. He’s got momentum and weight to him as he traverses the caverns, factories, and prisons he finds himself exploring.

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