Downwell Review (Trent Booty)
i review games on steam after i 100% complete them! check out my reviews to see all the games i have completed!
downwell is a vertically scrolling platformer that was developed by ojiro fumoto and published by devolver digital. it released in october 2015 on iOS and PC, then later released on android devices in early 2016, with PS4/vita ports coming in may of that same year. lastly, a nintendo switch port came out in early 2019. development started around march 2014, after fumoto, the sole developer, essentially dropped out of college and began working on game projects. downwell was apparently his thirteenth project, but was still the first time he'd been proud of the game and saw potential in making a full release. he took heavy inspiration from spelunky, a game fumoto was apparently "obsessed with." he wanted to make a game like spelunky but he wanted to make it simplistic enough that it could seamlessly run on mobile devices in addition to regular gaming spaces. later in september 2014, devolver digital even publicly tweeted at fumoto about downwell and eventually they became the publisher, which definitely helped the marketing and eventual sales of the game for sure. the success of the game even got the dev hired at nintendo for a brief time, which also led to the nintendo switch port.
downwell uses a black and white color palette, with red and blue sparsely used to highlight things like environmental features or enemies, although this can be changed later through in-game unlock-ables. you play as a "curious man" who uses gun-boots as his main weapon. you'll find treasure, kill enemies, and generally explore as you fall down the well. the well itself is procedurally generated, with enemies and other things also randomly spawning in at random points. there's even some light rogue-like elements at play here which add to the variety of the game overall.
the controls are tight, simple, and satisfying all at once, making this a very fun and extremely interesting platformer that feels great to play, and leaves you wanting more by the end of your initial playthrough. a common saying i've used before is if the biggest complaint i have about a game is that it's too short, you know it's a damn good game. this is also another classic example of how devolver doesn't miss and how they have a great eye for smaller devs and the great quality of games that can be put out with such small teams/budgets. it's extremely well crafted and the fact you can grab this on sale for less than a dollar is insane (i bought this for 74 cents). i highly recommend grabbing this on sale, immediately installing and trying to finish the game in one setting. it's definitely doable, but 100% completion will require at least two playthroughs if you're in to that kind of thing.