There is something beautiful about a tragic story that hits home accompanied by easy gameplay to make it all work. This was the scenario with The Binding of Isaac, a game that brought some of the darkest dungeons of thought regarding abuse and abandonment while pairing the narrative with an endless Legend of Zelda dungeon fight. That was and is still one of my favorite dark experiences in gaming.
Similarly, LISA: The Definitive Edition shows off a terrible story that doesn’t pull its punches while supported by an 8-bit role-playing game structure that keeps you motivated and hooked for hours. This is one of my favorite surprises from reviewing the last two years. There aren’t too many of these types of games, like Isaac and LISA, but when you see one and play one, you don’t soon forget how it made you feel.
This is how I felt about Laika: Aged Through Blood from developer Brainwash Gang. This game contains some simple gameplay led by motorcycle mayhem, almost an Excitebike backbone, while also pushing a tragically brutal story that doesn’t hold back, even though the characters are adorable badasses. While it does have some flaws in the control execution, there is more good than bad with the final verdict.
So, sit back, rev your motorcycle’s engine, and let’s land safely with this review.
Story is everything
You play as Laika, a coyote, who is hellbent on getting back at birds for the fall of her people. Armed with weapons, reason, and a fast bike, Laika drives through a barren wasteland that only George Miller could enjoy. While riding through the land eliminating as many birds as she can, she does her best to help those who need it, discover secrets and treasures that help with her journey, and simply tries to survive the wasteland’s unforgiving conditions.
This game’s story is akin to Mad Max: The Road Warrior, where you know the land he travels is dangerous, and his reasoning to keep traveling is to survive and take out as many bad guys as possible. Laika runs along the same lines, toting that same anti-hero feel, where you know she is a force to be reckoned with, even though she is struggling to keep it together amid never-ending tragedy.
This is one of those worlds that was built to make you feel uncomfortable and to show you how real the stakes are, even when you’ve got oddly adorable animals viciously living within it. It also makes you appreciate story progression and the ability to get Laika to the next step. It feels so much like LISA in this regard, where you just don’t see hope in the world but struggle to try and find it as you press forward. I love this type of game, as tragic backdrops seem to hit harder and resonate a lot longer than maybe a plumber beating a turtle and saving a princess. Sometimes life isn’t all peaches and berries, and to get that point across sometimes you need a hefty amount of tragedy mixed with a strong dose of hopelessness, but also a sliver of salvation just around the corner.
Hey, it’s what made Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back such a memorable film.
Anyway, Laika’s journey is a solid narrative and one that you won’t forget. It drives the gameplay and keeps your attention locked into whatever is next from point to point.
Gameplay that is brutal as the story
When I said that the gameplay is driven on an Excitebike backbone, where you ride through wildly hilly stages, trying to keep your arse from getting shot up, I wholeheartedly meant it. While my favorite memories of the NES classic were competing against my brothers and trying to get the best time, all based on navigating hills perfectly with well-timed jumps and landings, the controls were always fighting against me. And that reason is why one of the biggest challenges in this Metroidvania is getting used to the bike controls.
If you weren’t raised with the NES classic mentioned above, then this is going to be brutally new to you in terms of controlling the bike, the central gameplay theme of Laika. The controls are sensitive to the motorcycle gameplay in Laika: Aged Through Blood. You travel up and down hills, make jumps, climb over crevices, and do your best to get around quickly. If you land wrong in this game, then you’re going to die. Recovering from a missed landing isn’t easy, though possible, but making sure your bike hits with the most speed in the landing is the trick to success in the game. Getting a good rhythm, anticipating jumps, and getting the most out of your leaps and landings is what drives the quick gameplay of Laika: Aged Through Blood. Even through failure, it’s intoxicating fun to keep trying the best motorcycle mechanics method of success. Again, huge flashbacks of Excitebike, with the need to stick the landing as a continual reason to keep playing.
Now, you might be thinking that it doesn’t sound bad and that riding as fast as you can to try and make acrobatic leaps isn’t a raw deal for the gameplay. In a way, you wouldn’t be wrong. It’s fun to keep jumping and moving around, as the controls aren’t complicated in the Switch version. You use your ZL button to accelerate, you move left/right to pop a wheelie, which allows you to access multi-tiered platforms, and you can quickly change directions by pressing the Y key. Much like Communism, on paper, it looks like a simple win.
If you’re not used to this type of gameplay, then it might be a bigger learning curve. The actual motorcycle experience requires preciseness in its execution to get the maximum amount of fun from the game. You must stick your landings, and you must have some sort of insight into what is next on your path, almost needing to prepare for it in an instance.
While this goes along the lines of what the Metroidvania genre relies on for entertainment, it could be a bit jarring for those who just aren’t used to that kind of quick-moving gameplay and controls. Granted, eventually, even if you’re a novice, you’ll get an idea of how this game works and eventually settle down with it, but it’s certainly not an experience that those inexperienced can jump right into and enjoy. Motorcycle movement is somewhat unforgiving, even at the zenith of its entertainment. If you can push past that and keep going, or at the very least accept it for what it is, then the game won’t drive you bonkers.
And that, dear readers, is just the tip of the iceberg. The other piece of this brutal pie is obtaining weapons and having to eliminate enemies as you ride around the wastelands. That gameplay mechanic requires you to keep the motorcycle movement going while using the right Joycon to aim, use the ZR button to temporarily slow down time, and fire the perfectly placed bullet and angle into an enemy. It sounds like a lot to juggle in a single session because it is a lot to juggle. That doesn’t take into account the reload method, which is flipping a 360, and your need to balance good biking with brutal slayings. It’s a complicated set of controls that requires your attention and accuracy.
For the first hour or so in Laika: Aged Through Blood, I struggled with getting the above controls and their dance down correctly. Sometimes it felt like my aim was slightly off, and sometimes it felt like the controls were a bit too loose and sensitive to hit my targets correctly while flying and flipping through the air. I can’t tell you how many times an enemy took me out repeatedly before I found the perfect placement of my shot. Even then, I still had times where it wasn’t perfect, even when I had played this game to the point where it felt like I should have grasped the mechanic by then. There was a certain amount of frustration resulting from this constantly failing process and I never quite felt comfortable with these controls.
Now, having said that maybe that was the point of the game. Giving a good challenge to the user meant forcing the user to develop strategies. There is a point in the game where you realize this is what it was designed to do. Of course, you should know that is the point when you run into so many checkpoints that you can start over once you die. Duh.
Anyway, the challenging portion of the gameplay is a motivating factor in accepting your losses and doing it better. The additional help of blocking bullets and projectiles with your motorcycle just adds another layer of strategy to the gameplay equation. Combined, it’s a lot to juggle, but certainly a juggling act worth attempting. For example, early in the game, you will run into several paths where birds wait for you to cross over them. You either shoot them first, or you get shot. If you’re shot, that means you are aiming incorrectly or you’re killing multiple enemies in the wrong order, possibly in the wrong way. If you succeed, that means level progression, another checkpoint, and a short-lived victory before the next set of enemy approaches.
The gameplay wants you to think about approaches, positioning, and the best order of operation to eliminate enemies. It’s a violent set of challenges that will have you hooked from the moment your blood-splattered coyote corpse spreads everywhere on the road and drives you to sit back and think about the best-played strategy to progress. This type of gameplay overshadows any control faults in my opinion. You will be so driven to figure out the best approach for multiple enemies blocking your path that you’ll forget you’ve died a gajillion times arriving at the right conclusion. It’s like a puzzle, but one with wicked consequences. Or just like Dark Souls.
By the way, I’m not a huge fan of the Dark Souls series, but I respect the hell out of its design, and I understand why players can get hooked on its type of gameplay. It is driven by strategy, failure, and the sweet taste of success when everything works out brilliantly. That same logic and respect applies to Laika: Aged Through Blood. You’re going to die, but you’re going to come back knowing that you can do better. That’s enough to say this game deserves your attention.
If that gameplay description isn’t worthy of your attention, then understand there is more. There is a solid gather/reward system in place, as well as a small aspect of figuring out hidden secrets. Those are just sweet sprinkles on top of an already delicious sundae, but the extra helps to sell it or at least make it a bit more interesting to pursue the game.
Regardless, the gameplay is simple, the enemies are fun to take down, and the strategy is thick and drives the gameplay. Add some creative bosses and a fantastic storyline, and you have yourself a fun game that will certainly engage you in the right ways.
Gorgeous art
Anything not named Mario usually struggles to look good on Nintendo’s little console that could. Laika: Aged Through Blood doesn’t struggle, it brings home some gorgeous art that contains a mean personality, and it all starts with the main character, Laika.
The main character is driven by a personality. You can see her personality shine through the tiny OLED screen of the switch. She is visibly broken and raw when she takes off her helmet during cutscenes, and she represents a badass character that you want to control simply because of style and looks. She is a coyote Mad Max/Furiosa, and just a cool-looking character to lead the game.
Now, to help sell her personality and coolness, the environments built for the game are equally as detailed and badass. Lots of broken lands, brutal scenarios with other characters, and detailed 2D art that screams hand-made goodness. The game is gorgeous from character to world, and I’m shocked the Nintendo Switch could deliver it so well.
Anyway, it’s a graphically fantastic game. You won’t be disappointed.
On that note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
Laika: Aged Through Blood from developer Brainwash Gang is a wonderful and refreshing Nintendo Switch experience. It lends a brutal narrative that leads gameplay filled with strategy and challenges. While not everyone will take to the controls, which are an important part of the experience, the challenges and strategy will keep the frustration at bay.
