Ataraxie Review (Nintendo Switch OLED)

by Jim Smale · September 25, 2024

Ataraxie Review, Forcefully awakened from his eternal sleep, ancient pharaoh Antef fearsomely discovers the horror his kingdom has fallen into. His throne was stolen, his cult tarnished, and the corruption, started by Apis, will soon be engulfing the world. The time has come for you to bring back order and give your people the peace they deserve.

Ataraxie Review Pros:

Nice graphics.
337MB download size.
Own in-game achievements.
Action platformer gameplay.
Controller settings – can remap the controls and stick the sensitivity slider.
Screen borders can be earned/unlocked and set.
3 save slots.
Two game modes – Scribe and Pharaoh which boils down to game difficulty.
Cool in-game cutscenes.
Opening tutorial video.
Actions – attack, duck, wall jumping, jump, double jump, and holding jump go higher.
Very old school in its appearance.
Killing enemies gives health.
Enemies respawn when you leave and re-enter a screen.
2D game World.
Good soundtrack.
Three types of light show in the world and they affect you in different ways – blue light slows you down and you cannot double jump, red light does damage over time, and yellow light makes things disappear from your view.
Spend Maat points to change the light type.
Health bar system.
Metroidvania DNA throughout.
The map uncovers as you explore.
Find and collect hidden diary entries and re-read them in the menu.
A handy game timer is shown in the pause menu.
You can play mini-games at a merchant for the cost of Maat points. Three types of merchants so three types of mini-games.
Find and speak to many characters.
It’s a very basic yet endearing experience.
Find and earn skill points to put into the skill tree to improve and add new abilities in the sphere grid.
Ankhs act as save points, the place to enter the sphere grid, and fast travel between any used Ankh.
Fast respawning.

Ataraxie Review Cons:

Images and videos in the game have French writing on them.
Difficult game.
The game doesn’t do a great job of introducing you to everything.
Early game is just a case of always moving forward as you cannot open any doors.
Hitting enemies feels like a luck-based experience.
Parts of the world are very basic level design and repetitive.
Big difficulty spikes.
The game doesn’t do a good job of ushering or guiding you through.

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