Skip to main content
  • March 26, 2025

Ascent DX

Ascent DX Game Cover
100%Game Brain Score
Most mentioned positive aspects:music, story
Most mentioned negative aspects:grinding
100% User Score Based on 219 reviews

Platforms

PCMac OSWindows
Buy NowGet on Steam
Ascent DX Game Cover

About Ascent DX

Ascent DX is a single player open world platformer game with a mystery theme. It was developed by Vav and was released on March 26, 2025. It received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players.

Ascent DX is a tiny metroidvania brought to life in glorious 64 x 64 pixel art and soothing chiptune music. Crashed on an unknown planet you have to explore lush jungles, lifeless deserts, and luminescent caves in search of anything that can help you understand what has happened to the planet and how to get off it. While the game is a bigger version of the original Ascent, with almost twice as ma…

Genres & Tags
Play Modes
Ascent DX screenshot
Ascent DX screenshot
Ascent DX screenshot
Ascent DX screenshot
Skip Games Like Ascent DX

Games Like Ascent DX

Looking for games like Ascent DX? Here are top open world platformer recommendations with a mystery focus, selected from player-similarity data — start with Out There Somewhere, Haiku, the Robot or SHEEPO.

Out There Somewhere Image
91%5.6kreviews

Out There Somewhere

2016Arcade Platformer
PCMac OSSteam Deck+1
Games like Out There Somewhere
Haiku, the Robot Image
88%2.5kreviews

Haiku, the Robot

2022Open World Platformer
Nintendo SwitchPCMac OS+4
Games like Haiku, the Robot
SHEEPO Image
95%448reviews

SHEEPO

2020Open World Platformer
Nintendo SwitchXbox Series X|SPC+7
Games like SHEEPO
Gato Roboto Image
89%3.6kreviews

Gato Roboto

2019Open World Platformer
Nintendo SwitchPCCloud+5
Games like Gato Roboto
The Gunk Image
77%2.4kreviews

The Gunk

2022Platformer
Xbox Series X|SPCXbox Game Pass+5
Games like The Gunk
Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight Image
85%7.8kreviews

Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight

2016Role Playing
Nintendo SwitchLinuxXbox Series X|S+9
Games like Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight
SteamWorld Dig 2 Image
96%4.3kreviews

SteamWorld Dig 2

2017Casual Platformer
Nintendo SwitchPlaystation 5Playstation 4+11
Games like SteamWorld Dig 2
Omno Image
90%1.3kreviews

Omno

2021Casual Platformer
Nintendo SwitchXbox Series X|SPC+8
Games like Omno
Islets Image
94%1.5kreviews

Islets

2022Open World Role Playing
Nintendo SwitchXbox Series X|SPC+7
Games like Islets
Momodora III Image
92%1.3kreviews

Momodora III

2014Platformer
PCWindows
Games like Momodora III
More games like Ascent DX
Skip User Reviews

Reviews

100%Audience ScoreBased on 219 reviews
music29 positive mentions
grinding1 negative mentions
  • A well-made, polished micro metroidvania with tight controls, smooth platforming, and an engaging progression of abilities.
  • Beautiful pixel art and catchy chiptune music that create a charming, atmospheric world.
  • Short, sweet, and free experience that can be completed within an hour, ideal for quick play sessions or newcomers to the genre.
  • The story is somewhat vague or ambiguous, which may not appeal to all players.
  • Minimalist graphics and tiny resolution might not be to everyone's taste and can strain the eyes.
  • Some issues with controller support and rare bugs or softlocks that require game reset.

  • music

    35 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    83% positive mentions, 17% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The music is consistently praised for being catchy, charming, and perfectly suited to the game's retro pixel art style, enhancing the adventurous and immersive atmosphere. Many users highlight the soundtrack as a standout feature, complementing the smooth controls and overall enjoyable short metroidvania experience.

    • “The music was great, tones crisp and sparkly, and made me feel I was on an adventure.”
    • “The pixel art is miraculous, doing so much with so little; and the retro music is spot on.”
    • “A charming short-form metroidvania, with gorgeous pixel art and nice soundtrack.”

  • story

    29 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    34% positive mentions, 56% neutral mentions, 10% negative mentions

    The story is generally concise and simple, offering a sweet, sometimes bittersweet narrative that complements the gameplay without overwhelming it. While some players wish it were longer or deeper, others appreciate its brevity and the subtle world-building that encourages exploration and discovery. Overall, it serves as an engaging backdrop that enhances the metroidvania experience.

    • “Can be completed in an hour or so, but manages to give the feeling of a much bigger world and story.”
    • “The succinct, simple story immediately pulls you in.”
    • “Nice visuals, fun gameplay, and a surprisingly heartfelt story.”
    • “If there’s one thing that didn’t land for me, it’s the story.”
    • “☐ no story”
    • “Story is alright.”

  • graphics

    24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    46% positive mentions, 41% neutral mentions, 13% negative mentions

    The graphics are characterized by charming, low-resolution pixel art with a minimal yet appealing style that effectively uses bright and colorful visuals. While some users find the retro graphics and small screen resolution occasionally challenging, most praise the art style as lovely and well-executed, complementing the smooth controls and overall polished design.

    • “Great small scale metroidvania - the controls feel smooth and the art style is lovely - also the plot is quite entertaining.”
    • “I've always been fond of pixel art based games that utilize bright & colourful aspects to convey multiple environment styles and visuals.”
    • “Charming graphics and sound, smooth movement and polished mechanics.”
    • “Even by retro standards, graphics are mediocre, especially the dialog boxes, some of which were hard to read.”
    • “"Ascent DX" features extremely low-resolution pixel graphics.”
    • “The graphics for the character are not great, but the backgrounds and tiles are uncommonly good for the resolution.”

  • gameplay

    23 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    74% positive mentions, 13% neutral mentions, 13% negative mentions

    The gameplay is praised for its smooth, intuitive controls and well-implemented mechanics that blend classic metroidvania elements with unique touches, creating an engaging and accessible experience. Its tight movement, solid level design, and balanced difficulty make it enjoyable for both quick sessions and deeper exploration. Overall, the gameplay is considered polished, fun, and a standout feature of this indie title.

    • “A small metroidvania game with great level design, tight movement and well implemented mechanics.”
    • “Combine it with chill and fun metroidvania gameplay and you get this little awesome game.”
    • “There's nothing really surprising to it, you gain the abilities that you see in pretty much every game of the genre, but the two-buttons gameplay does the job and keeps you wanting to progress.”
    • “It's a bit annoying, but that's it... you're not really "losing" much gameplay since you get the first upgrades in the first few minutes of the game.”
    • “The mechanics are just barely original enough not to be a copy of every other game like it that you've played before, and not so radically different that it takes more effort to get used to than the content justifies.”

  • atmosphere

    6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    83% positive mentions, 17% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The game's atmosphere is widely praised for being rich and immersive despite its brevity, effectively capturing the charm and mystery of a metroidvania within a short, concise experience. Users appreciate its strong level design and the ability to create a compelling ambiance with minimal graphics.

    • “Great short experience, condenses the appeal of a metroidvania in a short, atmospheric 1 hour game.”
    • “It has a great atmosphere and packs a lot of punch for such a small game.”
    • “Generates a lot of atmosphere with just a few pixels.”

  • emotional

    5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The game delivers a heartfelt and emotionally impactful story with a sweet yet somewhat heartbreaking ending. Enhanced by crisp, adventurous music and engaging gameplay, it evokes strong feelings for the main character throughout the experience.

    • “The ending of the game made me feel bad for the main character.”
    • “Nice visuals, fun gameplay, and a surprisingly heartfelt story.”
    • “The story is sweet, although somewhat heartbreaking.”

  • grinding

    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 50% neutral mentions, 50% negative mentions

    The grinding in the game is well-paced, rewarding players with new abilities as they progress, which keeps it engaging and prevents it from feeling tedious. However, it may require significant time investment, possibly needing multiple playthroughs or lives to fully complete.

    • “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
Skip Game Offers

Buy Ascent DX

Skip Videos

Videos

Skip FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Ascent DX is a open world platformer game with mystery theme. Common tags for Ascent DX include free to play, indie, exploration, pixel graphics, atmospheric and others.

Ascent DX is available on PC, Mac OS and Windows.

Ascent DX was released on March 26, 2025.

Ascent DX was developed by Vav.

Ascent DX has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players. Most players liked Ascent DX for its music but disliked it for its grinding.

Ascent DX is a single player game.

Similar games include Out There Somewhere, Haiku, the Robot, SHEEPO, Gato Roboto, The Gunk and others.