izigame.me

Bionic Bay is an exceptionally well designed physics based puzzle platformer with plenty parkour elements. You will run, jump, roll and skydive through the wonderful sci-fi environment in gorgeous pixel art. The playable character - while drawn in pixels - uses skeleton animation that looks a bit clumsy at times, but thankfully it's not too goofy to distract from the experience. The overly generous checkpoint system fights potential moments of frustration so that the difficulty is overall very forgiving.
Multiple powerups are introduced during the campaign and have you manipulate your surroundings in various ways. One of the most prominent powers is swapping your position with an object that you previously marked, opening many curious puzzle situations. The main campaign is split into levels that use different variations of these Powerups, keeping the gameplay varied and interesting. The environment itself introduces various interactive elements and hazards such as rockets, electric cords and ice.
The endless caves and foreign machineries set up a great atmosphere that is supported by a convincing ambient sound backdrop. Actual music tracks are played at several key points of cinematic nature - be that some intense action scene or a calm cinematic moment. Sound effects are performed exceptionally well and bring life to all your footsteps, explosions and freezing moments.
The story is vague and leaves for interpretation with envorionmental storytelling occasionally interrupted by occasional brief intermissions. You're here for the journey and not for the ending - a common theme in these types of games.
One of my biggest gripes with the game are the gravity spheres that make you walk like on a tiny planet. To move on such a sphere you have to press the literal direction on the screen instead of just pressing left/right to continuously move clockwise/counterclockwise. It's as if you'd have to rotate your stick in a loop-de-loop in Sonic the Hedgehog instead of just continuously pressing right. This also gives more room for errors and can get frustrating when you're being chased by hazards. Fortunately this issue has been forwarded to the devs so an alternative control scheme will hopefully get added at a later point.
EDIT: The devs have already added the alternate control method as an option in the game menu. I tried it a bit and while it needs some improvement I appreciate their quick response to solving these kinds of issues. Kudos!
Additionally there's an online challenge mode where you race against other players' ghosts. The missions are time limited and so far it seems like they're unique levels not found in the campaign. Definitely a fun way to add a little padding once you've completed the main campaign!
Overall I'd highly recommend Bionic Bay for fans of platformers and pixelart who don't shy away from some challenging bits!
Side note: I wanted to avoid the comparison to other games even though they are two very obvious candidates which also happen to be among my favorite games of all time: Limbo and INSIDE. These games have been cloned countless times, and while there are some quite good exceptions none would ever reach the quality of the originals, on the contrary. I don't want to reduce Bionic Bay to being another clone even though this game has a lot in common with them. But there is so much unique creative force and originality that Bionic Bay, for me personally, deserves a spot on the throne next to these other two favorites of mine.