A classic platforming shooter, Orebody: Binder’s Tale follows the story of a scrappy robot fighting its way through hordes of robots to avenge its mentor, all developed totally within the confines of the NES.
For a lot of people, their first console and the games that were on it that bring back some of their strongest memories. For me it’s the Sega Master System II, with Psycho Fox, Bonanza Bros and the Wonder Boy games. For a lot of people that I know it’s the NES, and the Megaman games. If you fall into the latter camp then Orebody: Binder’s Tale is for you.
It’s a retro-style platformer but from the Megaman camp of directional shooting, jump shooting, and move-set expansion. There are also some really fun bosses in there, although the game takes a linear trajectory, with the protagonist making their way through successive areas as they head toward the big bad (rather than you clearing zones in an order of your choosing). Orebody: Binder’s Tale feels slippery, like its inspiration, and that floatiness feels fantastic once you figure out the hitbox on yourself and your enemies.
It actually had a physical run over on Premium Edition games, however, I totally missed that due to being busy elsewhere, and instead grabbed some hands-on time with its fantastic demo. If you don’t want to play it in the browser then you can actually download it and run it through NES emulation from the Orebody: Binder’s Tale itch.io page too.
I was really impressed with what I played, clearing through the first two bosses with relative ease. It was quite fun to slide past enemies, and have to adjust my playstyle as new enemy types came in (early on, enemies that drop projectiles which split, for instance). One thing that was really welcome was how generous the demo was with lives, which gave ample time to learn the different beats of the experience.
Orebody: Binder’s Tale will be launching on Nintendo Switch, Google Play, the Amazon App Store and PC.
