It takes a lot to get me to enjoy a platforming game, especially one from a 2D perspective. I’ve often said that I’m not a huge fan of the Metroidvania genre, which I’ve credited as a vessel through which developers deliver interesting stories and incredible visuals at the expense of memorable or innovative gameplay. Enter Bionic Bay, an upcoming time-distorting puzzle platformer that I was given the chance to try out ahead of time. Though Bionic Bay isn’t a Metroidvania itself, it surprised me by offering both incredible visuals and unique storytelling, alongside extremely fun gameplay, creating something that I thoroughly enjoyed, even in the game’s early, unfinished state.
Bionic Bay is an utterly fun, utterly weird puzzle platformer that uses some simple yet intuitive mechanics to challenge both your brain and your platforming skills across incredibly unique levels. A great deal of this uniqueness comes from the game’s breathtaking art style, featuring beautiful hand-drawn backgrounds that feel immense in scale, make masterful use of lighting, and do a great job of visual storytelling. The story they tell is of the surreal world of Bionic Bay.
From what I’ve been able to gather, Bionic Bay follows our protagonist, a nameless scientist, who uses a unique teleportation device and some biological modifications to escape an ancient biomechanical factory world. This world is as surreal as it is beautiful, yet also kind of terrifying and disgusting, with much of it feeling like an industrial hellscape designed to kill you, mash you up, and recycle your bits for whatever is being produced here. As much as I love admiring the backdrops in each level, I can’t help but feel disgusted every time my character is flung down a narrow, dirty pipe, only to land in a fleshy mass that, in the best case scenario, is the recycled biomass of other living beings, and, in the worst case scenario, a gigantic pile of poop.
And yes, I did describe the protagonist as being “flung down narrow, dirty pipes.” This is due to what is probably the best—and my favorite—feature of Bionic Bay: its incredibly fluid and reactive movement and physics system, which lend themselves to quick movements and the overall creative vibe of the game. More specifically, your character has something of elastic biology, with basic platforming mechanics like jumping having extended range, and your “dash” being the ability to fling yourself a great distance at will, including in the middle of a jump. The best way I can describe it is that the movement in Bionic Bay feels as though your character is a Stretch Armstrong figure, one that you are constantly pulling back and flinging around. It is incredibly satisfying to leap forward at the apex of a jump or fling your character down a ramp and watch him roll and slide until he hits the bottom.
This intuitive movement and physics system pairs incredibly well with the game’s platforming, which uses movement, physics, and other mechanics to deliver an experience that can be mentally and mechanically challenging without feeling cheap or unnecessarily difficult. Each platforming challenge is designed around a mechanic that you are given plenty of time to learn. While nothing in the game necessarily looks like it was designed to be used for platforming—a feature I greatly approve of, as it adds to the overall look and immersion of the game—once you understand how the mechanics work, the path forward always becomes obvious, and it never really takes more than two or three tries to get past a challenge.
My favorite of these mechanics—besides, of course, the Stretch Armstrong physics system—is definitely the game’s “poster mechanic,” which is the ability to mark and then swap places with inanimate objects at will. This fun little teleportation mechanic is used cleverly throughout the game’s platforming segments, often to block a deadly laser, create a platform for yourself, or for other such interesting uses of this ability. It’s one that feels like a clever combination of wits and reflexes, as not only do you have to think creatively to make proper use of this mechanic, but you also often need to be quick on the draw with your swap, as making proper use of the teleportation usually means throwing yourself into danger and swapping out right before you meet your end.
While I didn’t get a chance to play with this feature, due to my copy of the game being an early preview build, Bionic Bay also promises an online mode featuring a unique version of competitive multiplayer in the form of player-versus-player speed running. This is something I personally would like to keep an eye on, and plan to try out myself as soon as I get the chance; Competitive elastic platforming seems like something I could absolutely have a ton of fun with.
It’s hard to fully judge a game before it’s finished; There are still elements, like the multiplayer, I want to see first hand. However, I can say that my first impression of Bionic Bay is incredibly positive, and I would absolutely recommend the game just from what I’ve had the chance to play with so far. Its very clear to me, after playing, why Bionic Bay won so many indie game awards, which are proudly displayed on the game’s Steam profile; Its a game that, given a chance, I’m sure most players will thoroughly enjoy and have very little to complain about in the process.
Bionic Bay isn’t set to release until April 17th, but a demo drops on the game’s Steam page soon to give players a chance to play around with some of this game’s elastic weirdness. If I were you, I would give the demo a try and take the chance to jump into this unique puzzle platformer for your; Just try not to get stuck in the moving gears or ground up into fleshy meat piles.
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