Terrian Saga: KR-17: Initial Thoughts: Awesomeness

From the fiery shots and explosions to the intense jumps and dashes, “Terrian Saga: KR-17’s” the first few levels are nothing short of awesome.

“KR-17” is a 32-bit side-scrolling action-platformer, very reminiscent of Capcom’s “Mega Man” series. The game’s retro look and sound gives great aesthetic pleasure and its gameplay offers some serious challenge that significantly steepens as you progress through its diverse stages.

Players take control of a military drone named, well, KR-17. The little guy comes equipped with quite a heavy arsenal, including grenades, mines, a laser gun and other goodies. Traveling alongside KR-17 is J1M, a talking guided missile who not only serves as KR’s sidekick, but also a deadly projectile.

Each level seems to follow a similar formula, which is that a certain object must be found and dealt with before advancing. The only difference is the type of object to look for. The first level requires pressing a number of buttons while the second demands the destruction of generators. Either way, it’s essentially the same thing: exploring the board, taking out enemies while undergoing rigorous platforming until you complete the needed actions. But that’s okay, because with each new board comes a distinct design so that you’ll never once feel like you’re doing the same thing.

Towards the end of a level, the game changes things up and throws either a boss battle or a situation that requires fast thinking at you. Allow us to explain the latter. Early on in the game the player will come across a giant spider who will knock explosives down on the platforms in front of them. In order to get safely across the player will need to carefully (and hastily) choose their next step. It might take a few attempts before finally making it, but with each frustrating death comes that much more motivation to try again.