What could've been a stellar platformer was hurt by its shaky controls. As is, though, it's still worth playing.

User Rating: 7 | A Fading Melody X360
A Fading Melody, by indie-game developer Anchorcast, has a lot going for it. Unfortunately the controls don't handle especially well and what could've been a much smoother game ends up uneven.

In AFM, as protagonist you are a mental patient who's traveling/dreaming her way out of the institution. The game proceeds as a standard platformer and the first few stages do a good job of teaching you the basics: you're able to stomp on some enemies, roll into others, etc. From the get-go, the mood is well set by your ghostly-rendered character and foggy background, and the introductory text does a solid job of briefly setting you up for the "place" in which the game occurs. There's a strong aesthetic here that's welcome and for the most part well-rendered.

The problem comes when we examine the controls. Unfortunately, the protagonist is rather difficult to move around easily. The controls feel stiff - they don't feel intuitive at all. When you jump onto platforms, you constantly worry about falling to your death. This is both due to control issues as well as level design. The design is such that you must perform an act just so in order to continue, for instance jump off a platform and roll when you hit the ground to kill the enemy. Like mario bros, you don't have hit points, so one messup and you're done. Unlike mario bros, the levels are designed to screw you up. You'll find yourself retrying a level over and over until you do it just right - which is a total pain. Challenging isn't the right term here, it's stupidly punishing.

It's unfortunate that the game has these problems, because otherwise there is an interesting platformer here and a story to go with it that could've been compelling. As is, you may just throw your controller in frustration, but if you don't you may still find this game worth playing despite its faults since it is a worthy consideration anyway.