Dustforce (PS Vita) Review

By Brian Short 21.11.2014

Review for Dustforce on PS Vita

After winning a game development contest, Team Hitbox finally had the funds it needed to complete its game. Conceived in 2010 by the founding members, Dustforce released on PC in 2012 before making its way to the PS Vita in 2014. A darling of the indie community on Steam, read on to find out if Dustforce can hold up on Sony's handheld.

Dustforce is a platformer that is easy to play but hard to master. Navigation options are versatile with double jumps, wall-jumps, and even running on the ceiling at the character's disposal. Dashing can help speed up a fall or cross a small gap. Enemies are present, and while some are serve no greater purpose than just being in the way, others can be used to reach new heights or cross great chasms. After successfully defeating an enemy in mid-air, an extra jump is earned to stay afloat. In this manner, it is possible to cross giant spaces by fluidly jumping from enemy to enemy in rapid succession.

All of this action is presented beautifully by the game's colourful art style. Each zone is distinctly represented, with the Laboratory having a rather cold and mechanical feel to it, as opposed to organic and natural feel of the Forest. Leaves scatter in the wind, slimy green gunk bubbles, and books flap around in the air. Animation meshes seamlessly with gameplay, making perfect runs a spectacle to behold. Each of the four janitors has their own unique animations and play style. The blue janitor is the most balanced, the red is the quickest, the purple is most agile, and the green is most powerful.

Choosing which janitor to play as is a matter of preference, although some levels can favour a certain approach. Level design will vary from long paths with wide gaps to cross to small, compact levels with deadly spikes and enemies packed into every corner. The most efficient path through a level is usually lined with a path of leaves, dust, gunk, and so on. Sweeping up all of this dust, as well as defeating every enemy, will result in an 'S' rating for completion, with 'A' through 'D' rankings for anything less than 100%.

Screenshot for Dustforce on PS Vita

The other metric each course is scored on is finesse. With each hit on an enemy or speck of dust swept up, the counter will go up by one. In order to get an 'S' rating, a consecutive string of hits and sweeps need to be maintained throughout the entirety of the level. Waiting too long between sweeps or getting hit by an enemy will reset the counter to zero. 100 bits of dust or hits on enemies will unlock a powerful attack that clears the screen of all debris, including the baddies roaming around. The usefulness of this ability becomes apparent towards the end of levels when the screen is full of items that need cleaning. This can save precious seconds and help decrease the course time, netting a higher spot on the leaderboards.

After completing each level and being graded on finesse and completion, progress towards a new key is displayed. Earning an 'SS' on a level will automatically reward a key, but it's also possible to unlock them by completing multiple levels with lower than 'SS' rankings. This is what makes Dustforce so accessible - there's not a hard lock on any of the tougher levels; almost everything can be unlocked at a steady rate. Once the controls become more familiar, it's very easy to go back to earlier levels and earn higher rankings to unlock more keys. Basic levels are unlocked from the get go, with silver keys and gold keys necessary to unlock the tougher courses. Beyond those are levels that will truly test a player's mettle.

Not all blemishes can be cleaned up by the team of janitors as Dustforce suffers from slowdown on the Vita. This is most apparent in the Forest levels where leaves are blowing around on the screen, but luckily it isn't an ongoing or frequent problem, only eating up a few precious seconds in a minority of the levels. Controls also lack a bit of responsiveness that can quickly become frustrating in the beginning. Luckily, adjusting to the controls is not very hard - it just requires anticipating the next move a little earlier than more responsive platform games.

Screenshot for Dustforce on PS Vita

Cubed3 Rating

8/10
Rated 8 out of 10

Great - Silver Award

Rated 8 out of 10

Dustforce has the right mechanics, fantastic sound, and beautiful art direction to deliver a great platform experience. Unfortunately, system limitations can mar the experience, but for those dedicated enough to stick it out, an amazingly challenging and rewarding experience is awaiting. Dust until the broom falls apart…

Developer

Hitbox

Publisher

Hitbox

Genre

2D Platformer

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  8/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date Out now   Australian release date Out now   

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