Journey to the Savage Planet released in late January to strong critical acclaim. Nathan rated it 8 out of 10, praising it as a spiritual successor of sorts to the Metroid series.
At its best, Journey to the Savage Planet really captures that Metroid magic. That excitement of seeing a temping ledge, cave, or cracked wall just out of reach, and then, bit by bit, figuring out how to get there. Unraveling Savage Planet’s secrets almost always feels rewarding, as there’s very little collecting for collecting’s sake. Everything you find has a purpose. Often, I would try to play the disciplined reviewer and set myself hard goals, only to lose hours just happily exploring AR-Y 26 with no specific mission in mind. That’s the measure of a good Metroidvania. As a nice bonus, Savage Planet also includes two-player online co-op. The game’s world isn’t specifically designed around it, so you lose nothing by playing on your own, but it’s always fun to explore with friends.
Journey to the Savage Planet was made by Typhoon Studios, a Canadian developer created by Alex Hutchinson, Yassine Riahi and Reid Schneider. Hutchinson, a long-time industry veteran who has credits as Lead Designer for The Sims 2 and Spore and as Director for Army of Two: The 40th Day, Assassin's Creed III and Far Cry 4, recently spoke with GamingBolt to discuss the specifications of Microsoft's Xbox Series X and Sony's PlayStation 5 next-generation consoles. According to him, cloud computing will be more impactful.
It’s more power, but I think the cloud and being able to have large scale simulations and persistence will be the big new things this generation, so not so much the boxes themselves but what they connect to when you’re not looking!
As a reminder, Typhoon Studios just became a first-party studio for Google Stadia, which certainly puts the statement in perspective. However, the cloud's potential has been highlighted before by several developers and publishers. We'll see if Typhoon Studios will be among those capable of showcasing what Google Stadia can do.
