Having played so many indie games at this point, it has really deepened my appreciation for the difficulties in crafting a great game rather than just a decent one. There are simply so many areas that you need to be able to adequately address to a reasonable minimum degree, because otherwise your solid work in others will get pushed aside. To me that’s the fundamental issue with Farlands Journey, which has quite a number of elements that work well, but that suffers a bit as a full package.

When you load it up, it’s quite easy to have an initial good impression. The game’s art style is colorful and feels appropriately retro, with some pretty perky background music to match. In general it controls reasonably as well, with a predictable jump and not too much complexity to get in the way of a more classic family-friendly side-scroller. While I’d consider your bubble wand-esque weapon and its use a bit on the more unusual side for its use in enhancing your jump and attacking enemies, I think you could at least make a case that it’s a novel idea and works well enough even if it’s perhaps a bit frustrating.

Where the game began to really lose me though was in terms of its stage design, which at best felt generic most of the time… and often on the long side as well. Once you’ve got your arms around the controls and how to do everything you’ll be ready to go, jumping around, knocking out enemies, and on the lookout for hidden areas. The thing is, there’s just very little here to get excited about, and it just feels like you do a lot of the same things for long stretches, meandering around until you get to the exit, with nothing memorable or particularly noteworthy along the way. 

That all makes Farlands Journey a bit disappointing, checking off many of the items that you’d want to have when making a retro-styled platformer but then coming short on what would normally be the heart and soul of the experience. Lacking some inspired level design, or at least better pacing, I just began feeling myself losing interest pretty quickly. With loads of retro platformers out there, you really can’t afford to be bland, and this is unfortunately a title that fell into that trap.