I'm not much of a Resident Evil fan- or at least, I wasn't, growing up. It was only the lack of titles present in the 3DS library that pushed me to pick up the technically astounding Resident Evil Revelaitons (not a typo) and begin to become somewhat enamored with the series. In truth, I was something of a skittish person in my youth, painfully aware of bumps in the night and checking behind my shoulder on many occasions. Horror games didn't really appeal to me, and even tense situations in games like Metroid Prime 2 would have me walking off nervous energy. I became a bit more familiar with the horror genre as I grew older, eventually accepting it and enjoying the thrill of my pulse pounding and discomfort rising during tense sequences. Still, it took me even more time to get into horror games, partially because I wasn't quite certain how these kinds of titles would attempt to replicate the staples of the cinematic and storytelling genre while still utilizing the uniqu...

Dandara is not an easy game. One could attribute this to the speed of its primary attack function, labyrinthine design, limited health and energy regeneration systems, or perhaps most obviously the punishing currency mechanic, but I would argue otherwise. The most unfamiliar aspect of Dandara, and what largely sets it apart from other games, is its movement system. This aspect dictates the momentum and difficulty of almost every moment of game, and without it, Dandara would likely be a lovely conceptual experiment in Afro-Brazilian artwork and storytelling, but would fail to make an impact otherwise. The addition of this system pushes Dandara into a whole new level of interactivity, even when most of its content is deliberately and intentionally scripted. While linearity in an interconnected-world action platformer (I ain't callin' this a Metroidvania) is not usually considered much of a positive aspect, I would argue that Dandara is actually much better because of this choic...