Duck Souls+ (Nintendo Switch) Review

The easiest comparison to make to this game is Super Meat Boy, adapting the same short burst level structure, with challenging obstacles introduced every 10 stages or so. It's a formula that's been seen numerous times, but as the old time saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. While Duck Souls+ may not offer anything particularly revolutionary, what it does sustain, however, is a consistently fun and challenging experience, proving to hold up on its own despite its lack of originality.

Player takes control of a cute little duck, as they traverse through the 100 levels this has to offer, all with varying levels of challenge. As is standard with the genre, it starts out relatively easy, introducing you to easily graspable level mechanics, before bringing in more complex challenges to overcome. This is all combined with the duck's signature move: a dash-like feature similar to the likes of Celeste, allowing the use of an extra mid-air jump in any given direction. This adds to the tight feel of the character without being overly complicated, seeing as the rest of the gimmicks in the game are reliant on the stage's obstacles rather than being tied to the player's controls directly.

If there's one issue this suffers from, it's the small size of the playable duck. Though not always prevalent, it was a common disruption from the experience, taking a few seconds to figure out where the duck is on-screen before starting the level itself. To add on top of this visibility issue, the duck would sometimes blend in with the stage's backgrounds too much, leading to more time wasted on finding where the character is. This was never a deal breaker, and didn't occur frequently enough as to ruin the experience, but further clarity on the character would've simply helped to make this more accessible.

Despite this small visibility flaw, the presentation is strong, portraying simplistic yet pleasing retro-styled graphics that help give off a polished feel. This is combined with decently composed music that suitably accompanies the gameplay, to create a wholly enjoyable experience. Matching this presentation, is the somewhat easier difficulty of the game, as compared to its brutally challenging counterparts, making it a great starting off point into the genre, or even to younger players who may find these sort of titles to be too much of a challenge. Duck Souls+ simply oozes with charm too; charm that may resonate with these players, and encourage them to persist through the challenges of the levels.