Super Magbot

Remember games like Super Meat Boy? Those fancy games with simple yet reliable game mechanic that immerse you into great gameplay, this is Super Magbot. You can't jump. Your only weapon are magnets which you utilize to push or pull yourself across the platforms. It's one of those easy to play but hard to master type of games. Story is simple and easy to swallow. Visual side while pixelated holds a really nice art style. Music and sounds are good. Strong recommendation.

ℂ𝕠𝕞𝕖 𝕠𝕟, 𝕄𝕒𝕘𝕓𝕠𝕥! 𝕃𝕖𝕥'𝕤 𝕤𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕦𝕟𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕖

Be warned, first and foremost, that this game will test your sanity and mettle unlike any other platformer game. It's a clever twist on the classic 2D platformer formula, minus the jumping. That's the gist of it, really, your protagonist cannot jump, but has to use a laser beam to latch unto walls and make it out of a level with his ONE-TOUCH death trifling ass... ahem, behind!

The pixel-art, of course, is a focal point of the game. It just works for this sort of game anyway. The story is unequivocal and very unoriginal... Planets are getting smashed by a major devil asteroid... you have to gather each planet's core to fight off the asteroid. That's all there is to it.

Sounds simple enough? Wait till you enjoy (or rather, get infuriated) by the sudden HUGE difficulty ramp-up that happens mid-way through the game. If you're using a mouse, or a joypad that drifts just a little bit, you're in for quite a surprise. The laser sometimes just doesn't want to latch unto anything and yup, it will flail you straight into the lava, ughh... And some levels tend to drag out, go there find a key, come back through the gauntlet of spikes and traps... As I'm writing this review, I have literally just one level left to beat the entire game... The last boss; it's a 5 minutes fight to the death, where you have to literally use all the mechanics of the game to defeat that nasty asteroid and it's frustrating beyond what words can describe.

The game is 8/10 at first glance, but because it refuses to function and it just stops being responsive at the unluckiest of times, I'm downgrading it to 7/10. I hate it, but I love it, weirdly so.

Super Magbot is one of the finest platformers I've played going all the way back to my introduction to the genre with Super Mario Bros. at five years old.
There's no jumping. You aim your magnet with your right thumb, to propel or repel, and control Magbot's movement with your left. Twin stick platformer is an apt description. You get two red charges and two blues charges that are only recharged after landing on the ground. These limited charges add an element of problem solving to a game that is otherwise focused on pure platforming and reflex. There's often a kind of rhythm to using the charges. Some of the late game highly technical levels are essentially precision rhythm levels.
Super Magbot's magnetic movement is explored thoroughly with creative new ideas and obstacles gradually introduced throughout. If you jive with the game's innovative movement, you'll absolutely love the insane ninjastics that you'll pull off after you get the swing of things. I'm unfamiliar with any other platformer with this kind of magnet-based movement. Donkey Kong King of Swing for Gameboy Advance is the closest analogue that comes to mind, not because that game shares similar movement, but simply due to how wildly and successfully it shakes up platforming conventions. Like King of Swing, Super Magbot requires planning and a bit of puzzle solving. Some of the optional collectables in Super Magbot appear impossibly out of reach until you strategize a series of moves. I had to stare at some levels for several minutes to even figure out what was being asked.
Super Magbot's level design and pacing are extremely tight. The difficulty ramps up fairly quickly and by the end is truly outrageous. One level in the final world took me two hours of repeated attempts. You will be tested time and again, especially if you go for full completion. Super Magbot is a pick up and die kind of game. Expect to die hundreds of times. Like any great precision platformer all those failures slowly add to your skill. There are accessibility options in case any levels give too much trouble.
I have to also mention the great pixel art and solid chiptune soundtrack. More and more these days I find myself muting games and listening to an audiobook instead. Not so here. I didn't grow tired of the music in my 16 hours playtime.
Overall, Super Magbot is a big recommendation for fans of platformers or rhythm games. Just go in ready for an intense challenge.
Offhand, here's a bunch of 2d platforming games with inventive movement that I've enjoyed over the past few years: Windswept, The King's Bird, Dustforce DX, Splasher, Aeterna Noctis, Rusted Moss, Ugly, Ynglet, Drill Dozer (GBA) and Donkey Kong King of Swing (GBA).

Super Magbot's a decent precision platformer that seems to have flown completely under the radar? With Magbot being unable to jump, this game plays in a completely differnet way compared to most other platformers, with aiming your mouse taking the place of the spacebar as your primary means of navigating your environment.
Magbot's main tool is his magnetic power that allows him to attract himself to or repel himself from different magnetic blocks, which grow in variety as you play through the game but always come in red or blue which have opposite effects depending on if you left or right click them. If you want to jump over a gap, you might have to repel yourself from the ground beneath you, or attract yourself to a platform above you, etc, with the trajectory you take depending on how you aimed your mouse.
Platforming for the most part is extremely well done. There is an element of planning as you find the best position to jump from, time the exact moment to bounce off of one of the magnetic blocks, and execute it all. As you ready yourself to attract or repel, you also slow down in mid-air which makes it so that your performance depends on your skill rather than your mouse being stupid and not pointing where you want it to. However, I wasn't as big of a fan of the polarity mechanic. Basically, whatever a left click does to a red block, a right click does to a blue block, so as you go through each level you have to make sure you press the right button. This is what's going to cause most of your deaths. While it requires you to be actively engaged while playing, it also doesn't make a big difference in the platforming itself. And you can actually negate it by just memorizing the exact sequence of right and left clicks you'll need to use to beat a level, which happens naturally as you keep playing a level over and over and which is what I often did in the later levels. My main gripe is that it breaks the flow of platforming as you puzzle over which finger to push down instead of thinking about the jumps you are trying to make.
There is a good number of levels in this game and they all feel well designed. The difficulty does shoot up from the second world onwards which could throw you off. However, you are allowed to leave up to two levels at a time incomplete which prevents you from having to butt your head against one level you don't like fruitlessly until you can keep playing. Levels are also usually nice and short and explore one or two ideas though some of the later ones include a lot of backtracking which can feel tedious. Collectibles are also well-placed and often require you to do things that seem impossible at first glance to reach them. There are also a good number of harder bonus levels that you can unlock after completing each world as well as a whole bonus world which makes collecting more of the collectibles than you need to progress feel worthwhile. The bosses are alright and are basically just like normal levels but more drawn out and timed - the last boss though is kind of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and takes around a century for each attempt with no checkpoints.
Visuals and level theming is nothing special. You have your grass world, ice world, lava world, and special world. Like every other generic 2D platformer. The art in the levels is pretty utilitarian for better or worse. There isn't much to the story besides creating an excuse to collect things. I was disappointed though that for completing the bonus world, there is no acknowledgement at all? Not even a short cutscene, or even a screen saying "Congratulations" or something.
Super Magbot is a good 2D platformer with a solid set of levels and mechanics that test your skill and build upon themselves in interesting ways as you progress. It just might have been an even better game with a bit more focus on the pushing and pulling aspects of magnets rather than their polarity. I'd most recommend this game to people who are already familiar with precision platformers and are looking for something different; it's probably too difficult for people who are new to the genre.

A surprisingly good 2d platformer with great mechanics, level design, and soundtrack. The only hard part is learning how to press the correct button.

Its a solid enough platformer with some hiccups that keep it from greatness. The game itself is one of those platformers without jumping. The whole game is just attracting or repelling based on the colors. It works well enough and starts off with good and fair difficulty. The main problems are in the mechanics. The game is so much trial and error, and not like a normal platformer where you make mistakes on jumping or avoiding obstacles. This is all about trying to remember which color is which button and which color you are supposed to use at which time. No matter how much you play you'll constantly screw it up, especially with multiple jumps all needed to be done in a row. This gets worse on later levels with lava rising up or pressure spike traps meaning you don't have a second to compose things. This forces you to sit and watch and try to figure out the right combination and then execute it. This makes it almost just a puzzle and memorization game, which takes away much of the ability to improvise as you're just doing all the steps and pressing all the buttons like the game designs it to. But the game is precise and tight with platforming most of the game.
The mechanics can be finnicky as well with repelling/attacking sometimes missing even when you have it right over the object, as if the hitboxes can be off. Also its really annoying when they introduce clouds or other things that force you to immediately spin the joystick around to use a second push off the object. This is where a mouse would be better for the quick precision, but then you have to use the keys for character movement. Its like keyboard and mouse but have cons no matter what you use. Thankfully they do add accessibility options, as the checkpoints are an obvious must, and somewhat ridiculous they don't already include them. For later levels the air freeze ability makes it much less rage inducing, as you feel like most of your deaths are cheap compared to other platformers where you feel you have more control. This game is mostly a coin flip simulator where you have to guess the right button to press at the right time 3-5x in a row while angling the finnicky aimer at the exact right angle each time. It can be very frustrating at time based on the game design. But its not all bad and when it works it can be fun, if a little repetitive. Also adding annoying slippery ice levels is just one of the worst ideas ever. This game is no celeste or Mr Bree but its solid enough if you can get back some of the poor design choices and implementation. 7.5/10

Super Magbot is a 2D Precision Platformer about a robot named Super Magbot where its galaxy faces a threat of a giant asteroid destroying all planets in its path and its mission is to help restore balance.
The game offers 4 big zones of heavy precision platforming stages, each will test your quick thinking and timing abilities.
The game uses a magnet color system of blue and red, where you have to go through each stage while traversing the traps with magnet pulls or pushes, the cursor movement was a bit awkward and it can mess up your trajectory of bouncing off platforms or pulling yourself towards them.
The music and OST was galaxy theme and suited the stages, most of them were okay as I couldn't put my full focus into the music due to each short stage / giving focus and attention to solving the puzzles.
Bosses cannot be attacked directly, however you deal damage to them by platforming magnets during the fight and find the correct strategy to beat each one, testing your dodging and quick timings.
It's recommended only if you're a big fan of brutal precision platformers.
Overall Rating 7.5/10