Grade: B-
Retro-Side scroller Action Adventure game
A Hole New World is a fantasy game where you play as the “Potion Master.”
In the short lore at the beginning, you find that the barrier between hell and the regular world has broken. Devils and demons have opened up holes in the ground and are now cavorting about the prime material plane and causing havoc. The potion master, our protagonist, who can throw an unlimited amount of bottles somehow, is the only one that can stop them.
The gameplay is a bit of a chore.
A Hole New World has your typical SNES side-scroller controls. You have the ability to run, jump, and attack.
The biggest twist in the gameplay is that if you jump into the holes, you don’t die; you come out upside down in the abyss world. This is interesting when sometimes you switch back and forth to progress through the level.
I was hooked on the first level and enjoyed traversing upside down. However, as I got into the second and third levels, the game got just too fiddly for my taste. Maybe it’s just that this is a retro game that is meant not to hold your hand. I was lost, confused, and frustrated by little fiddly and impossible feeling annoyances.
Art, Music, and Ambiance were redeeming.
While I didn’t enjoy the gameplay, the art design, music, and general ambiance of the game were stellar. I ended up watching a playthrough, and the bosses are legit unique, and awesome looking.
If the gameplay and level design were a better fit for me, I would have enjoyed my time with A Hole New World.
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