Critically Accalimed Owlboy Flies on Switch
Owlboy started in development back in 2007, and wasn’t released until November of last year. Despite taking ten years to finish, Metacritic and IGN gave it glowing reviews, and it was well-received. Simon Stafsnes Andersen, the game’s creator, cites his inspiration came from Nintendo games, most notably Super Mario Bros. 3 and the Tanuki suit mechanics. Thus, Owlboy was born. Finally, Andersen is coming home to the company that started it all: Nintendo. The news was announced during the latest Japanese episode of Nintendo’s YouTube series, The Cat Mario Show.
Owlboy was originally released for PC in 2016, with MacOS users getting the game in January of 2017. The game puts players in the role of Otus, the eponymous owl boy who is tasked with saving his village from a band of sky pirates. Otus must use his gift of flight to navigate through the game’s complex stages. He can also team up with a number of other characters and use their unique abilities to battle enemies and bosses while he ferries them through the air.
Despite its long development cycle, critics who previewed the game stood behind it and the amount of time it was taking to finish the game. Kotaku’s Luke Plunkett stated in 2013 that it would be “worth the wait” of its extensive development time. Regarding the art style, he mentioned, “..and the game’s charming art style, which for want of something more descriptive reminds me of a Genesis version of Wind Waker.”
When the game was finally released, Owlboy netted 88/100 on Metacritic, IGN’s Chloi Rad gave the game 9.3/10 and writes that the game “shines thanks to surprisingly varied, Metroidvania-style gameplay and a charming cast of unlikely heroes”. We even rated the game very highly. The game must be good if everyone’s saying so!
Owlboy is exclusively slated for Nintendo Switch at the moment – no other platforms have announced plans to let this game roost on their consoles.