MIO: MEMORIES IN ORBIT

Can tentacles and angry doors distinguish this Metroidvania?

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How can a Metroidvania game be made to stand out these days? Well, one way is to make an otherwise humanoid robot character behave like a gangly arachnid. Our most recent visit to MIO’s world, the Vessel, focuses on this particular power. Hold one of the shoulder buttons in the vicinity of any wall or ceiling and MIO — the robot — sprouts wispy tentacles that magnetically attract you to the surface. Keep holding and you can walk on these appendages, which scuttle like the thread-thin limbs of a house spider.

In many ways, MIO looks to be playing it straight as a Metroidvania. In previous showings, its little protagonist has certainly moved with a gymnastic grace, but the routines of air dashing and grapple hooking would have gained fewer points for originality than execution.