Headlander

It's difficult to describe what Headlander is without sounding a little insane. Yet if you told someone that Headlander is what you'd get if Double Fine did a metroidvania style sci-fi throwback, it would make perfect sense to them. Headlander is to '60s and '70s sci-fi what Guacamelee was to the Mexican wrestling scene.

Now for the explanation that'll make us sound bonkers. You're a head. And in a distant future you've been awakened to take on the evil that is Methusela, in a world inhabited by robots. The neat thing about being a head is that while you can't talk (no lungs!) you can fly around in your jet-powered helmet, suck off the heads of the robots, and borrow their bodies. In doing so you'll gain different abilities and meanwhile you'll also upgrade your abilities and skills, and as you unlock new areas you can also go back to older ones to seek out hidden secrets (now made available thanks to new abilities) - hence it's a metroidvania style experience.

However, unlike most metroidvania style games, this is very much a shooter, as the robots tend to pack laser guns, and there's a lot more action here than what you'd expect from a Double Fine title. While story and characters are important, the main substance here is found in the mechanics and the progression.

Headlander may look like a side-scrolling platformer, but although there certainly are platforms, there's no jumping. A design choice as much of the puzzle-solving involves getting the right colour robot through specific doors, and of course your head can fly around freely so why on Earth would you want to jump?!

We mentioned there's action, and lots of it. At times the screen will be ablaze with laser bolts going in every direction, and usually in different colours (robots are naturally colour coded in the future). Thankfully as a head you've got plenty of opportunities to deal damage of your own. At first your helmet is pretty weak, and you'll have to suck the heads off of robots and use their weaponry for offence, but later on you'll be able to headbutt with authority as well. There's also melee, and some of the later advancements in the ability tree allow for some fancy moves in that respect.

Combat is fun, but for the most part not overly engaging, with some notable exceptions such as boss fights and certain more difficult to conquer rooms. But for the most part the robots are just there to be mowed down. As is often the case with metroidvanias, if you're a completionist who goes back to get all the power-ups in previous levels, the game isn't as challenging as if you try and power ahead without picking up all the secrets. It's a delicate balance to pull off, but thankfully it's one that's left to the player to regulate. If you don't find it challenging, don't go for the power-ups, if you do find it challenging, maybe you left some vital boosts behind that can make your journey a bit more relaxing. Overall the combat in Headlander isn't much of a challenge, and you can afford to be a bit reckless and still progress.

We briefly touched on the boss fights, and they're great as they introduce more tactics to the combat. One boss fight with a certain queen forced you to switch colour of robots, Ikaruga style, to do damage while trying to avoid different colour lasers to keep yourself alive. If we could ask for one thing it would be more boss fights as they were some of the highlights.

If Headlander had been set in a medieval castle or if it had involved an arm cannon or any other such trope, we would likely have found the experience much less engaging, but the art direction and sound design worked wonders for this game; it's simply brilliant. The visual design mimicking the effects you'll remember from your old VHS, the colours, the robots themselves, and perhaps just as important, the music, all play a part in making this much more than your run of the mill metroidvania. That and the humour.

We realise that this brand of innuendo rich comedy isn't for everyone as it borders on Austin Powers territory at times, but we chuckled throughout. As if sucking off heads as the main mechanic wasn't enough, there's plenty of velvet and dim lighting to be found in the more social areas of the lunar station. It's all in good taste, of course, including the rocket you're mounted on at the beginning that for some reason features two ball-shaped jets at its base.

It may not be the most polished and rewarding metroidvania we've ever come across in terms of mechanics and gameplay, but it certainly makes up for it in other areas. It has that special Double Fine touch to its aesthetics and while the story is fairly basic, the way its presented and put forward makes it all the more enjoyable.