The Messenger

The Messenger succeeds in just about everything it does. It's a masterful retro throwback with challenging action-platforming and a charming story to tell. At the same time, its mastery of revealing itself over its ten-hour runtime and pushing the player forward is something that every modern game could learn from.

The Messenger is not just a brilliant love letter to the 8-bit and 16-bit games that inspired it. It’s proof that even in a market saturated with retro-style platformers, there are still clever ways to approach the genre. It is one of the most well-designed games I have ever played on both a gameplay and storytelling level. Sabotage really created something special here and I can’t wait to see wha...

If you have not experienced The Messenger yet, there is no better time than now. Its unique and witty take on a tried and true genre is challenging and fun with nice replayability. Never frustrating and always asking you to improve your platforming abilities, the 2D platformer is one of the best of recent years.

2D side-scrolling action games like The Messenger may be a dime a dozen these days, but you’d be missing out on something special by passing this one up. Featuring a surprisingly long campaign, an incredible soundtrack and tight, challenging level designs, The Messenger stands as a shining example of great game design. We’d highly recommend you pick this one up; it’s the very definition of a moder...

The Messenger leans on classic platformers from the 80s and 90s, but comes with plenty of its own tricks to make it feel like a wonderful twist with plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor.

Judged by its visuals alone, The Messenger is a charming retro adventure with pixel perfect platforming. Even that high praise is to do it a disservice, as the game soon opens up to be an unexpected, yet brilliant metroidvania, delivering a plot that twists, turns, surprises, and has humour to spare. Ultimately, the Messenger is one of the best indie games I’ve ever encountered. You really should ...

Say what you want about the ubiquity of pixel art, side-scrolling indie games, but the truth is that when done well, they're brilliant. There are a handful of good examples, like Shovel Knight, Celeste, and Freedom Planet, but The Messenger might be the easiest to recommend. This Ninja Gaiden inspired action platformer is the full package -- an engaging story, fantastic presentation, and ultra tig...

The Messenger wears its inspirations on its sleeve. From the chiptune intro to the introduction of the edgy, though lackadaisical, ninja protagonist, it’s easy to see that The Messenger is a loving callback to ye olde games of yore. Namely, the good ol’ Ninja Gaidens, and later, the darling Metroids and Castlevanias.

When you’re fully geared up and The Messenger is hitting you with brand new stages and challenges that you haven’t seen before, The Messenger is an amazing, must-play experience. Taken as a whole, it’s brought down only by fetch quests that make The Messenger last several hours longer than it feels like it should.

Retro throwbacks are a dime a dozen these days, with independent developers paying loving homage to the games they grew up with. The Ninja Gaiden-inspired action platformer The Messenger accomplishes this feat while simultaneously subverting the genre in multiple ways.