Islets

Islets is a pretty competent indie metroidvania made by a single developer!
To be exact, 2 brothers. One developed the game, the other provided all the music. Respect.
The game is surprisingly very crisp and highly polished!
(If we gamers ever want to make an indie game of our own, Islets is how we always imagine it.)
Islets itself is a very wholesome and chill metroidvania.
Compared to others that are utter sweat fests. Yet, it is still challenging enough to keep your attention!
For an experienced gamer, the bosses could be defeated on 1st try as their mechanics could be easily learned.
That speaks of how comprehensive their design was. But also, I was stressing on my last 1HP almost every time!
The upgrades felt meaningful and the gameplay was greatly enhanced due to that.
Yet, one could nitpick that some upgrades made some challenges trivial. I can't say, as I hunted down all upgrades early.
Despite this tiny nitpick of little importance, Islets is a pretty well-conceived game!
Get it on sale and you get around 10h of solid gameplay.

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I can’t believe I let this one slip through the cracks!
As a huge fan of Metroidvania’, I’m not sure how a game like Islets slipped past me. This game is just a delight. Made mostly by a solo developer, Islets is a great entry into the genre that keeps it nice and tight.
With satisfying movement and controls and good abilities progression, Islets feels great to play. The Studio Ghibli-esque art design works great here along with a stellar soundtrack to fill out the ambiance. The game boasts some nice accessibility options to either make the game harder or to accommodate a more laid back play style, which is always appreciated in my book. If I had a complaint, it would be that fast travel point are just a tad too far in between from each other and the map is not marked the best, sometimes making it so that I was passing through the same area again, trying to figure out where to go. It was a minor annoyance in an otherwise delightful time with the game.
For any fan of the genre, I’d definitely recommend checking it out!

+Boss fights are mechanically well made, best part of the game
+Platforming is decent: worse than Ori games but better than average
+Cute characters like Greybird make you smile at times
-Story feels very shallow: imagine Cave Story without the story
-Almost all bosses lack proper backstory and/or personality
-The world is an unmemorable maze, so it's hard to backtrack even with a map
Score: 7/10 - recommended to buy with a 50% discount only

It's a great game! Fun to 100%, with relatively easy platforming and challenging but fair bosses. It's mostly fairly linear, but it still feels like you're exploring. I wouldn't say that this is the best game I've ever played (it's the best I've played this year so far, but it's also the only game I've played this year so far), so if you're looking for a masterpiece, I'm not sure this is it, but it's got charm and upgrades and exploration, and what more could you want from an MV?

One thing that had me leery at first was some of the similarity to Hollow Knight. I feel like almost every MV today is either ripping off Hollow Knight or paying homage to it, and the arc of the sword, the reaction to damage, the arrow mechanic, many enemy attacks, the masks, the economy, etc. are kind of weighing in the "ripping off" side of that scale. But I was pleasantly surprised: the game feels nothing like Hollow Knight, in a good way, with the few similarities feeling like intentional nods in an otherwise very different game. Indeed, one of the most interesting aspects of the game is the bullet hell aspect in a few of the bosses, which is very much this game's own thing. I hope that we can outgrow this need for every MV to be Hollow Knight in as many ways as possible -- HK is nearly 8 years old now, holy crap -- but Islets isn't, and its mechanics are a joy and don't feel derivative at all. As I said, this is a great game. Not a life-changing-ly great game, sure, but great nonetheless, and, again, fun to 100%. I recommend it!

(Note: there's a boss rush mode you can unlock after 100%ing the game. Some people like that sort of thing. I do not, so I didn't engage with it. But maybe you'll like it, I don't know!)

Perfect steam deck game, chilled metroidvania, charming characters, rewarding exploration and some good bosses!

It's a cute little (10 hours ish) Metroidvania, mostly focused on platforming with some serviceable-but-simple combat. It's not balanced the best, but the controls feel pretty good and it has some charm. I'd say the strongest point is the vibes, which are pretty great for most of the game and only kind of dip a little in the back fifth or so of the game. Very cute, and while it's up to you if a short game is worth the asking price, I had fun though! Definitely scratched the Metroidvania itch, even if it wasn't a 10/10. I'd call it a solid 7?

100% review: I picked this game up on a whim due to a sale, thinking it could be a good starter before trying other games of this genre. Looked cute, looked simple enough for mechanics - but my lord they do have complexity hidden in this seemingly easy-looking game. A fantastic start to a journey into this genre.
You're not a saviour of the worlds, you're just a simpleton warrior who is trying to make it, creating friends along the way and watching a story unfold before your eyes. Each upgrade you feel the impact, the collectables are enjoyable to locate, it's not an extremely long game either and does not feel tedious whatsoever.
It's a rare gem for me to find this and I would highly recommend to give this a go. You can tell the care that was taken creating this fantastic adventure.