Worst Games in the World #4 - Aaru's Awakening (PS4)

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Gavvie
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Worst Games in the World #4 - Aaru's Awakening (PS4)

Post by Gavvie »

Some three years after the last one, I thought I'd start writing these again only, instead of actually buying and playing bad games for the purpose of this series (although I might do that from time to time if they crop up cheap enough), I'd just write it for games I've played that I actually thought were terrible.

Onwards!

--

Aaru's Awakening is, according to IGN, a "hand drawn, fast paced 2D platformer" which puts you in charge of the titular Aaru, who has two abilities - teleportation and charging.

Right, let's get this out of the way now - you're playing as a mythical being who can teleport and charge into enemies. Guess what he can't do very well: JUMP. If you want to get to that platform above you, you have to teleport onto it. Seen a gap? Teleport over it. It's confusing, and really not something that I was expecting when I read the description on the PlayStation Store page.

I'm also at a bit of a loss as to what you're doing and why you're doing it. The story tells you about four beings who each rule the world for a set period of time. They're named after times of day (Dawn, Dusk, Day & Night), and each has its own Champion. Aaru (that's you) is Dawn's Champion, and is awoken when it becomes apparent that one of the other beings doesn't want to relinquish its hold on the world. What's supposed to happen then is that you travel through the world, defeat the other champions and bring order back.

What will actually happen is you'll have the exact same experience I did - you'll play the first level and think "oh my, everything looks quite orange", and just put it down to being that level's aesthetic. When you get to the fourth level, you soon realise that no, everything is actually orange. The background, the enemies you're supposed to be fighti-no, sorry, TELEPORTING PAST, the platforms you're traversing on. Everything near as dammit uses the same colour palette, which means you have to pay an absurd amount of attention to make any progress.

Regardless, this all pales in comparison to the actual reason this game just shouldn't exist - the controls are terribly mapped, on the PS4 at least. To control Aaru, you need to do the following:
  • Move around with the left stick
  • Jump with R1
  • Teleport with L2
  • Air dash, after jumping, with R2
  • Use the right stick to aim where you'll teleport/air dash
Get all that? So, if you wanted to jump, air dash, and then teleport to a platform above you, you need to use three of the four triggers on the DualShock. This wouldn't actually be that pad if the triggers were buttons like they were back in the PS2 days, but when two of them are context sensitive, it makes the whole game near unplayable.

Worth Buying?
On PS4? No. I got the game free via the PS+ Instant Game Collection back in April, and I deleted it the same day after the aforementioned four levels progress. This is not a game that's worth playing on a console. Aaru's Awakening has also come out on PC via Steam, however, so if you are at all curious about this game, then PC is the way to go, mainly as even if you can't recalibrate the controls, they're bound to be a lot better than what Luminox Games managed with the PS4 pad.
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