A Gorgeously Animated Metroidvania - Genopanic Demo Impressions

I have played a lot of metroidvania games in my time gaming, but there are still ones that can find ways to really impress me in different ways. With Hollow Knight, it was the aesthetic and music, and with Dead Cells, it was the addictive gameplay loop and roguelike elements baked in. For Genopanic, it was a mix between the gorgeous art and fluid animations, both of which makes this one of metroidvanias I can't wait to play on release.

Genopanic is an upcoming 2D pixel-art metroidvania from developer Mobirate. In it, you will explore a space station that has been overrun with danger. Now, with your trusty plasma cutter, jetpack, and other weapons like a flamethrower, to solve puzzles, defeat enemies, and uncover the secrets of this derelict station.

The game does have a lot of similar elements to other metroidvanias. You walk around a map filled with different pathways, get new abilities as you explore, use them to discover secrets, and take down epic bosses. The demo gives us a sneak peek of all of this, getting us to the point of getting the plasma cutter and being able to go back and cut down old barriers. It also incorporates some great humor, finding a couple moments that made me laugh (like the guy who felt safe and was then eaten by a plant).

While the game seems to succeed at being able to balance all of this and still be enjoyable, the game succeeds in 2 distinct areas I want to dive into: aesthetics and animations.

Starting with aesthetics, Genopanic uses a pixel-art presentation for the game and it does so beautifully. Using vibrant colors and semi-complex structures, the game looks detailed where it needs to, simple where it doesn't, and still retaining a gorgeous big picture. Take the scene below for instance. You have a well-detailed background, mixing in different machines and electronics, paired with great lighting that highlights the different elements in the scene. With a simple protagonist front and center, the overall scene is one of balanced beauty.

Next, we have the animations, which is my favorite element personally. From the walking to the environment and just how the weapons work, each animation in the game feels fluid and really makes the game come together. One of the ones I loved the most was actually the gravity gun. After beating the demo campaign, you are put into a challenge area where you can do more and test out the weapons and jetpack and such. The gravity gun is one of them that allows you to pick up and move boxes and it feels wonderful.

Put both of these together and you get a metroidvania that stands out above the rest. I was sucked into the world seeing how well this combined and makes me wish I could have played more. On top of that, Genopanic also runs especially well on the Steam Deck!

Genopanic's Demo Performance on the Steam Deck

With how the visual style is, I didn't think the game would have any issue running on the device, and thankfully, I was right on this. With no changes, the game runs at a perfect 60 FPS with around 8W - 10W battery drain, giving around 4+ hours of battery life.

With all of this, the game has full controller support and supports 16:10 resolutions, which means you will not have any black bars! Genopanic really felt at home on the Steam Deck and if the full game runs as well as the demo, this will be an easy Best on Deck game and one of my personal favorites!

You can find Genopanic on Steam and wishlist it there as well. The game has a planned release for Q4 of this year, but no word on pricing and exact release date just yet. BUT the demo is still available now, so if you haven't yet, I would definitely recommend trying it.

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