Unbound: Worlds Apart from Alien Pixel Studios is a 2D puzzle platforming adventure on Nintendo Switch. Learn more in our Unbound: Worlds Apart review!
Unbound: Worlds Apart from Alien Pixel Studios is a 2D puzzle platforming adventure on Nintendo Switch. You’ll be tasked with using your magical powers to defeat the ruthless evil that is tearing reality apart before it’s too late. By visiting each of the many interconnected worlds in this hand-drawn adventure, you’ll be able to activate portals around main character Soli, which will have different properties depending on the world you’re currently exploring.
You’ll control Soli with the left analog stick or the D-Pad, jumping with the B button, and dashing with the ZR button. You can use activate levers and interact with objects by pressing the Y button, which will allow you to, say, grab onto a large stone block so that you can push it and pull it as needed. The Y button will also be used for talking with other characters. The L button will allow you to toggle portals so that you can solve the many puzzles you will find. This might not seem like much at first, but you’ll slowly unlock the ability to double jump which, when combined with wall climbing and dashing – while using a portal here and there – will keep this experience feeling fresh.
To save you some time when backtracking is required, your map, which you can access with the – button, can show you the fast travel spots that you have unlock along the way. Need to go back to a previous spot and don’t feel like walking, dashing, and portal platforming back there? Then just approach a waypoint, press the – button to open up your map, select the fast travel point that is the best option, and presto!
As mentioned before, the portals you conjure around Soli will have different effects depending on which area you’re currently exploring. This means that a portal can invert gravity around Soli in one world so that he can go flying upwards to avoid hazards, or it could manipulate time so that you can make some of the trickier jumps that will require all of your attention. You could also use portals to turn nasty creatures into useful stone blocks when using a portal at the right place at the right time.
The game’s difficulty ramps up at a steady pace, always finding new ways to challenge your abilities. There’s going to be a lot of trial and error in your future if you decide to take Unbound: Worlds Apart, as you find the right sequence of actions needed to survive the trickier platforming segments in the game. The good news is that the game is a bit generous with its checkpoints, so you won’t end up losing a lot of time replaying big parts of a level – but you will end up dying a lot and thus replaying smaller segments.
Unbound: Worlds Apart includes an in-game achievements system, with a variety of objectives to complete. You’ll unlock these achievements by starting the game, awakening a forbidden power, finding the first map-maker in the game, defeating a boss, using the light to solve a puzzle that will reward you with a relic, solving a puzzle to enter the abandoned mine, for saving the many lost villagers you will find in your journey in each of the areas you visit, and for completing the game, to name some examples.
Unbound: Worlds Apart is a challenging hand-drawn 2D puzzle platforming adventure that will keep things feeling fresh by introducing new ways in which the portals you conjure – or that sometimes extend from you when not moving or jumping – affect the gameplay mechanics. Unbound: Worlds Apart is out on Nintendo Switch with a $19.99 asking price.
Disclaimer
This Unbound: Worlds Apart review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Alien Pixel Studios.
