Freedom Planet - The legacy of the blue hedgehog

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Hello everyone! In the last entry I talked about a modern JRPG game inspired by the classics, and in this new entry I’m going to talk about another game inspired by a classic that conquered the screens of a whole generation of button-mashers, although this time around we change the RPG genre for the platforming one. Were you a fan of Sonic? Did you like Mega Drive classics such as Dynamite Headdy or Rocket Knight Adventures, or Saturn classics such as Astral or Silhoutte Mirage? If the answer is yes, keep reading, for the game described in the next lines is definitely made for someone like you (or just anyone who loves classic 16-bit era plataformers). The game is called Freedom Planet.

The story behind Freedom Planet is rather interesting, for originally the game was intended to be a fangame based on the popular franchise starring video game’s most famous blue hedgehog, however, at some point during its development, guys at Galaxy Trail realized that they had enough material to create a completely new and independent game, and so they decided to start a Kickstarter campaign in order to fund their project, and after a successful campaign, Freedom Planet was officially born. However, despite being a completely new game, as soon as we grab our controller and start playing, the most veteran players will feel a very familiar feeling, one that they might not have felt in a really long time and that will take them back in time straight to the golden era of 2D platformers, for it seems that no matter how much the team tried to hide the origins of the project, you might take the hedgehog out of the game, but you definitely cannot take the game out of hedgehog, as Freedom Planet not only is a great tribute to Sega’s timeless classic, but it could have easily been the official new entry series right after Sonic 3 (and definitely better than many of the recent games released by Sega). Thus, those who have played Sega’s series already know what to expect; a 2D platformer in which speed will play a very important role. However, saying that Freedom Planet is just a clone would be unfair, for although the influence of the Sonic series is undeniable, the developers have added enough extra elements to help to give the title its own personality, even if most of those elements are similar to the ones we can find in many classics of companies such as Treasure, Capcom or Konami. To begging with, Freedom Planet has a more complex “combat system” than that of the game starring Sonic, for in Freedom Planet attacks will be assigned to a specific button. Also, opposite to what we could see in Sonic, where the stages where more linear, Freedom Planet adds an exploration element by having stages full of multiple ways that we will need to explore if we want to find all the game secrets. Another important feature of the game will be the classic final stage bosses, which of top of some of them being (insane) huge, they will also display all the “retro-meaniness” that their grandparents use to display in the classics games. But that is not everything, for Freedom Planet is not your typical one character platformer, but instead of that, the game will allow us to choose from among three characters, all with their own unique skill set that will radically change the way in which we will have to face the nine stages that compose the game’s story, thus adding a lot to the game’s replay value. On top of all this, the game also includes a generous amount of game modes for a game of the genre, including a Classic Mode in which we will have to complete all the stages with barely any interruption, an Adventure Mode, which is basically the same as the previous mode only that it includes several cutscenes that will narrate the game’s story, which despite being your typical “good guys versus evil guys” type of story, has all the charm of the classic platforming game stories, or a time attack mode that will allow us to compete for the best completion time. As you can see, content is definitely not Freedom Planet’s weak point.

Regarding the game’s presentation, Freedom Planet is a game that inherits all the charm of the classics that inspired it, managing to convey that unique handmade feeling that only pixel art can transmit, with beautiful and colorful sprites and stages, which include a wide variety of enemies and stages full of all kind of details, turning the game into an instant eye candy for any fans of the pixel art and the retro games.


Freedom Planet is just another proof of how sometimes passion for what you do can beat the biggest of the budgets, a game that belongs to that recent wave of games such as Oniken, Odallus or the Shovel Knight, to name just a few, that have been created by a generation of developers that refuses to let the games they grew up with disappear in favor of the modern AAA productions, using their childhood dreams to bring back old classics that keep proving that they still can appeal to a big portion of the gaming community, especially the most veteran players who cannot help but to smile as the remember their beginnings as gamers. Freedom Planet is the perfect time machine to take us to a time where games were just something different, it’s a game that manages to transmit all the magic of the classics it’s based on, on top of being a more than worthy spiritual successor of the Sonic series, which it even manages to surpass in some aspects. If you like classics 2D platformers, Freedom Planet is a game you MUST play. The game is available on digital version on PC via Steam and the Nintendo Wii U via the Nintendo’s eShop. And if after you finish it you cannot help but to crave for more, fear not, for the developing team has already announced the sequel. Enjoy your trip to the past!


GAMELAY VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUnREYrLz64

The three protagonists of the adventure.