While I’m on the topic of NES-style Metroid-likes, here’s… a single-screen puzzle platformer?

Ultra Dolphin Revolution is a small team who thus far have focused on faux-8-bit action games released exclusively on Wii U, between 2016 and present(!). They’re big Nintendo fans, as you can tell from their name (taken from development codenames for Nintendo consoles), their frequent cosplay appearances at cons, and the references in this game. Of course there’s Metroid nods, the key art is based on the international boxart of Super Mario Bros., and the pickups resemble the Zapper and the NES Advantage.

The structure of the game too harkens back to 80s arcadey experiences. There’s 128 single-screen levels (although a good chunk of them are remixes of earlier stages) that can get demanding of timing and reaction, but with a nice puzzle feel of figuring out the correct order to do things… particularly the levels where your evil shadow mirrors your movements.

On each stage you have to pick up the joystick to create a portal to the next stage. Sometimes you’re timing jumps between moving platforms, or navigating some tight corridors between obstacles, or just blasting aliens in your way. There’s also the occasional warp to skip you ahead. Later on they heavily use the alien who’s able to fire at you from any angle through walls, and the difficulty of some stages can get a bit much… such that I opted against playing the sequel game that purportedly stacks on the challenge. This was at a satisfying level for me.

You have limited lives, but they only really matter for score chasing, as you’re able to start any level you’ve reached from the main menu, and it defaults to your last spot on a game over. So while it has the trappings of an early NES game, it’s a lot more forgiving. Also, it’s in widescreen. Also, it’s very cheap! It doesn’t really make use of the Wii U’s double screens, just mirroring the display on the Gamepad, but I was happy to get some more use out of the old faithful.