Story:
The story of Gelatinous is that you play as a treasure hunter that stumbled into a temple in an effort to locate the secret to eternal life. Instead of the secret to eternal life, the treasure hunter finds a crystal. That crystal transforms the treasure hunter into a gelatinous slime creature and now has to work to get back his humanity.
Gameplay:
Gelatinous at its core is a platformer with Metroidvania elements. You play as a slime creature that can traverse areas of the map by attaching itself to walls and ceilings and jumping across platforms. As you explore the map, you can gain new abilities that will help to solve puzzles and allow you to get to previously inaccessible areas. These abilities are obtained by either solving puzzles or by defeating an area boss.
New abilities are learned by completing puzzles or defeating bosses. Once you gain a new ability, it can be used to solve puzzles and access previously inaccessible areas. Areas have both environmental hazards as well as enemies. Environmental hazards are to be avoided using your abilities while enemies can either be avoided or attacked based on what abilities you have earned.
Graphics and Performance:
This game can be played on an original GameBoy, Gameboy Color, a Gameboy Advance, and any other devices that can play Gameboy games. The graphics will change depending on the device that it’s being played on. Playing on an original GameBoy or Gameboy Pocket, the game is played in either grayscale or with a green tint to it. Playing on a Gameboy Color or Gameboy Advance, you get to play the game in color, though it’s limited based on the chosen set of colors. Playing the game on a Super Gameboy or something newer will give you more color palettes than playing on one of the previously mentioned handhelds.
Performance-wise, the game plays very well regardless of what you’re playing on. Controls are responsive, and character and enemy movement is good with no ghosting effect like you would expect from a game like this. A few retro indie games that feature Metroidvania elements tend to have some areas of slowdown based on what’s happening on screen. Thankfully and rather surprisingly, this game doesn’t have any slowdown of any kind.
Sound:
The soundtrack for this game has a wide variety of background music. Each stage has its own unique music that changes seamlessly when having to backtrack. Not only does the music change between areas, but it also changes when entering a boss chamber. Music can even change based on events happening in the game. The amount of music and how it dynamically changes is something that I would expect to find in Sonic 2 on the Sega Genesis or Super Mario World on Super Nintendo. The fact that this is a Gameboy/Gameboy Color game is very impressive, and not something one would expect.
Conclusion:
Gelatinous is not only a unique blend of genres but a technical masterpiece. To have a Gameboy game that plays and feels like something you would play on a 16-bit system is as unsettling as it is amazing. For those that are fans of platformers and Metroidvania games, you have to check this game out
Regardless of how you choose to play this game, it’s going to be a great experience and one that’s hard to forget!
Disclaimer: Physical copies featured in this article were provided by the publisher for purposes of this review. Purchase links for the games can be found here.