Aaru's Awakening

Aaru’s Awakening is a beautiful frolic into a world of nightmares and imbalance: championed by its hand-drawn art style, compulsive level of difficulty and thrilling sense of achievement.

64%Game Brain Score

gameplay, graphics

replayability, grinding

86% User Score Based on 224 reviews

Critic Score 57%Based on 11 reviews

Platforms

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About

"Aaru's Awakening" is a challenging, fast-paced indie platformer with unique locomotion mechanics. Players control Aaru, a mythical creature on a quest to save his world from destruction. Using a combination of dash and teleport abilities, players navigate through intricate levels, solving puzzles and battling enemies in a vibrant, hand-drawn world. The game offers a satisfying difficulty curve and a captivating story, making it a must-play for platformer fans.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

86%

Audience ScoreBased on 101 reviews

gameplay14 positive mentions

replayability3 negative mentions

Aaru's Awakening features stunning hand-drawn graphics that create a captivating visual experience.
The teleportation mechanic adds a unique twist to the platforming gameplay, allowing for creative level navigation.
The game offers a challenging experience with a fair number of checkpoints, making it engaging for players who enjoy precision platformers.

The controls are often clunky and unresponsive, leading to frustration during gameplay, especially in more difficult sections.
The level design can be punishing, with many blind jumps and hazards that blend into the background, resulting in cheap deaths.
The soundtrack lacks variety and can become monotonous, failing to enhance the overall experience.

gameplay
49 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
65%
6%
The gameplay of the platformer is characterized by a unique teleportation mechanic that adds a dynamic element to level design, appealing to speedrunners and puzzle enthusiasts alike. However, the experience is marred by imprecise controls and frustrating mechanics, which detract from the otherwise stunning visuals and artistic presentation. While some players appreciate the challenge and originality, others find the gameplay inconsistent and hindered by poor design choices.
- “The gameplay was pretty solid as well, with tight controls and well thought-out levels.”
- “Teleportation mechanics open so many possibilities and the game does a great job implementing sections of a level to seem like mini puzzles as one tries to clear each level as quickly as possible.”
- “It's an interesting platformer, with nice art style and some new mechanics that make the gameplay really dynamic and exciting.”
- “The stunning hand-drawn graphics and atmospheric music are commendable, but the core gameplay experience suffers due to imprecise and frustrating controls.”
- “Awesome art style completely ruined by terrible mechanics and level design.”
- “Nice art, sound and gameplay, but the controls are garbage and make the game almost unplayable.”
graphics
48 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
52%
42%
6%
The graphics of "Aaru's Awakening" are widely praised for their stunning hand-drawn art style and detailed animations, which many reviewers consider one of the game's strongest features. However, some players feel that the visuals can be at odds with gameplay, leading to confusion and frustration due to clunky controls and poor level design. Overall, while the artwork is beautiful and captivating, it does not fully compensate for the gameplay issues that detract from the experience.
- “The hand-drawn graphics are absolutely beautiful and stand out as one of the game's strongest features.”
- “Stunning hand-drawn graphics, a simple yet beautiful storyline full of symbolic elements, and an awesome soundtrack.”
- “The graphics are astoundingly beautiful.”
- “I'm giving this game 1/10 because of the art style, and I still feel like a generous god.”
- “The graphics are woeful - they look like they were scribbled with an art major's biro in his spare time after he was kicked out of university for not being very good at art.”
- “The art style is unique and okay, but it also makes spotting certain obstacles really difficult, like lava or tar pits that are drawn in the same colors as the surroundings, so you mistake them for solid ground.”
story
33 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
52%
39%
9%
The game's story is described as beautiful and intriguing, featuring a mythico-primitive narrative that is enhanced by stunning hand-drawn graphics and effective narration. However, many reviewers find the storyline to be predictable and lacking depth, often taking a backseat to the challenging gameplay. While some appreciate the artistic presentation and the potential of the story, others feel it fails to engage fully, leaving a sense of emptiness amidst the platforming action.
- “Stunning hand-drawn graphics, a simple yet beautiful storyline full of symbolic elements, and an awesome soundtrack.”
- “The story of Aaru's Awakening is a tale of four gods.”
- “This makes for a pretty interesting story which is narrated through storybook cut-scenes between each realm.”
- “The game consists of levels, within chapters... and a story in the passenger seat.”
- “The story is predictable and basic, but the narration makes it very enjoyable to listen to.”
- “The story is utter nonsense as well, but hey, a platformer can do just fine without one.”
music
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
56%
27%
17%
The music in the game is generally described as atmospheric and decent, providing a soothing backdrop that complements the stunning visuals. While it enhances the ambiance, many reviewers feel it lacks memorability and can be overshadowed by gameplay frustrations. Overall, the soundtrack is appreciated for its light and upbeat qualities, but it doesn't significantly elevate the gaming experience.
- “Stunning hand-drawn graphics, a simple yet beautiful storyline full of symbolic elements, and an awesome soundtrack.”
- “Music and sounds are wonderful, atmospheric, and totally add to the game experience.”
- “The enchanting hand drawings as well as the stunning soundtrack are hugely appealing and really add another dimension to this platformer.”
- “The music, while atmospheric, tends to be a bit dull.”
- “The soundtrack is serviceable, but it doesn't elevate the game in a memorable way.”
- “-sound; much like the story, the music takes a back seat. Still, it does its thing of setting the atmosphere well.”
atmosphere
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
57%
14%
29%
The game's atmosphere is enhanced by stunning hand-drawn graphics and atmospheric music, which effectively set the mood despite some critiques of the music being dull or secondary to the gameplay. While the overall feel and art are praised, the imprecise controls detract from the experience for some players. Overall, the atmosphere is generally well-received, contributing positively to the game's appeal.
- “The stunning hand-drawn graphics and atmospheric music are commendable, but the core gameplay experience suffers due to imprecise and frustrating controls.”
- “I just tried this game and I really enjoy it, love the art, feel, atmosphere - the controls aren't too bad overall.”
- “Music and sounds are wonderful, atmospheric and totally add to the game experience.”
- “The sound, much like the story, takes a back seat; still, it does its job of setting the atmosphere well.”
- “Atmosphere: b+”
replayability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
75%
The game's replayability is mixed; while it offers a hardcore mode and achievements that encourage additional playtime, many players feel that the lack of collectibles or hidden items limits overall satisfaction and replay value. Completionists may find the absence of optional content a significant drawback, though the story-driven nature of the game still allows for some replayability.
- “+Replayability - not only does it have a hardcore mode, but in order to get certain achievements, you have to get gold on some maps, and that just adds hours to the game.”
- “I should mention the game is basically story-driven but can be replayable. I just wish there were some form of collectibles or hidden items, as I enjoyed getting 100%. It would increase the replayability of the game for me. Though I know there are those who dislike those types of things, it could just be optional items, like notes that provide lore about previous events of the war or monster encyclopedia pages.”
- “For completionists, this is a significant drawback and detracts from the game's replayability and overall satisfaction.”
- “I should mention the game is basically story-driven but can be replayable. I just wish there were some form of collectibles or hidden items, as I enjoyed getting 100%. It would increase the replayability of the game for me. Though I know there are those who dislike such things, it could just be optional items, like notes on the lore of previous events of the war or monster encyclopedia pages.”
- “+Replayability - not only does it have a hardcore mode, but in order to get certain achievements, you have to get gold on some maps, which adds hours to the game.”
grinding
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be a double-edged sword; while checkpoints alleviate some frustration, certain boss fights and repetitive tasks can shift the experience from challenging to tedious, leading to a sense of relief rather than satisfaction upon completion.
- “It isn't ridiculously hard thanks to fairly spaced checkpoints, but it does come close to being a bit teeth-grinding.”
- “The game is intended to be challenging, but at some points it stops being challenging and simply becomes tedious, with the boss fights being the main culprits.”
- “You just feel like you've finally completed a tedious task.”
optimization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
150%
The game is reported to run smoothly in 4K, thanks to the Unity engine, but players feel it is primarily optimized for keyboard and mouse controls, which may detract from the experience for those using other input methods.
- “Technically, the game runs smoothly in 4K because it's backed by the Unity engine.”
- “However, it seems like this game was optimized for keyboard and mouse.”
- “The performance issues make it clear that optimization was not a priority during development.”
- “I experienced significant lag and frame drops, indicating poor optimization across various hardware setups.”

57%Critics’ scoreBased on 12 critic reviews

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