While there absolutely could and should be more Metroidvania titles on the Switch and Switch 2, I’ll at least admit that we seem to get periodic surges of them, and that more often than not they tend to have some appeal. One of them, coming from the indie space, that many people adored was the pretty brutal Hollow Knight, as well as its recent successor Silksong. These titles were both pretty challenging to give a score to, since they’re quite a bit tougher than traditional titles in the genre, to the point it wouldn’t be unfair to call them unforgiving in many ways. I think MIO: Memories in Orbit is the first case I’ve seen of another indie title pretty clearly inspired by Hollow Knight’s particular style of play, though in terms of its visuals it’s on an entirely different level, reminding me more of the beautiful GRIS with its distinctive visual stylings.

Getting you up to speed on what to expect, this is a Metroidvania that feels like it puts equal emphasis on both combat and traversal. There’s no doubt that the pretty slow, deliberate, and ultimately quite limited battle prowess you possess feels like a page taken out of the Hollow Knight playbook. While you’ll eventually get the means to allow your attacks to pack more of a whallop, for the most part what will pull you through some tough boss battles won’t be so much power, as careful dodging and timely counters. Chipping away at tougher enemies while avoiding taking damage is the name of the game here, and since your character isn’t the quickest on their feet, it’s learning to be patient that can be most critical to survival. The thing is, in order to get everywhere, and find the pretty abundant secrets peppered all around you, you’ll also have to get very comfortable with the game’s jumping mechanics. 

The good news is that in general the controls for this are pretty responsive, the less good news is that there are times where the specifics of how the stages are designed can be just a bit too tight and unforgiving, leading to frustrations that could have been less extreme. It doesn’t happen often, and I get the desire to make people challenge themselves to execute cleanly, but there are simply areas with difficult platforming that feel like they go a notch or two further than they should, usually because of there being very little space to work in. There’s no question that the game is challenging, but I do credit the developers with at least having an accessibility menu with a limited set of options to make the experience a little less punishing. I’d honestly recommend using them, since they’re only incrementally making the game easier, and for things like traversal puzzles nothing is going to make them any easier. All that said, if you don’t mind the game being a challenge, or are happy to have some provided means to make the it more approachable, there’s quite a lot to enjoy here.