Outbuddies DX | Xbox One Review

The Metroidvania genre has had an incredible resurgence over the past few years. Everywhere you look, there’s a new one popping up, especially ones with old-school art styles. It becomes difficult to sift through the sheer number of them to find the gems, but I’m happy to say I found one. Outbuddies DX from one-man developer Julian Laufer is the best love letter to the original Metroid I’ve ever played. Although it has a slow burn towards the beginning, by the time I rolled credits, I had the biggest smile on my face and feeling of accomplishment.

Welcome to Bahlam

You play as Nikolay Bernstein, a maritime archeologist and adventurer. He wakes up to find himself 36,000 feet under the South Atlantic Ocean. While attempting to figure out how to get back to the surface, Nikolay discovers a sunken fortress called Bahlam. But there’s an ominous presence buried deep in the dark waters, and your job is to help our hero uncover the mystery of this presence and find his way home.

You’ll hear me make quite a few comparisons to Metroid in this review, and that’s mostly because it feels like an extension of that original NES title. You’re given about the same amount of story here as you were in that game. While that might turn off some narrative-driven gamers, I found it incredibly intriguing. Part of Metroid‘s charm back in the 80’s was how isolated it made you feel while exploring. That is echoed here in Outbuddies DX, although there’s arguably more exposition here than in the classic.

How Metroid Is It, Though?

It’s clear to me that Julian is a huge fan of the original Metroid. This is not just another corridor shooter with upgrades, however. Sure, you’ll acquire missiles, this game’s version of the screw attack, and even a morph ball. But each feels like an homage to its inspiration instead of a ripoff. They don’t work exactly the same as you’d expect and instead breathe life into the formula in a way that I very much appreciated.

There are a few twists to the genre in this title that make it stand out. The most obvious is the inclusion of a Buddy-unit, which is a floating robot that follows you around. At any time, you can switch control to your buddy and use its abilities to help you traverse Bahlam. Buddy can move certain objects, hack enemies, and even search for hidden walls. Remember the search beam in Super Metroid? Imagine being able to use that at any time without any restrictions in a room. You can float the robot to any corner of the room to find walls to bomb or secret passageways. It makes secrets much easier to find, which is good, because Outbuddies DX is far from an easy game.

Worth the Wait

I’ll admit, I struggled quite a bit at the beginning of this game. As an avid Metroid fan myself, the controls didn’t function the way I wanted them to at first. On top of that, I couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to do multiple times. Outbuddies sticks to its commitment to minimal communication when it comes to new upgrades. You might get a brief text explanation, but most of your tools are explained in a pixel animated placard that can be difficult to decipher. Plus, this game is hard. I almost shelved the game within the first few hours because I was so frustrated.

Thankfully, something finally clicked, and I understood what the game was trying to do. Once that moment hit, I legitimately could not put it down. What came across to me as a huge negative at first finally struck home. Outbuddies actually wants you to struggle at first to give you a similar experience you had with Metroid. If you remember, that game barely explained anything to you at all (unless you actually read the instruction manual).

The beauty in playing this title is in learning the game’s formula, much like playing a brand new pinball table for the first time. Your first go at a brand new table is almost always a disaster. You don’t know what to hit or how to reach those top scores. But you learn it and wind up appreciating the intricacies as they are revealed. That’s what Outbuddies does for me, and it’s a snowball that just keeps building until the end.

Outbuddies DX Final Verdict

Outbuddies DX is a game I’ll cautiously recommend to most gamers, but insist fans if its inspiration play. It takes a while to get its hooks into you, but once it does, it never lets go. Its puzzles make me think outside the box in a way I haven’t in a long time, and the bosses are incredibly satisfying to take down. It’s not often I’ll uncover every corner of a Metroidvania map, but I did so here, not for the achievements, but because I simply wanted to. I haven’t had the sense of accomplishment that I had from completing Outbuddies DX in a long time. It’s satisfying in a way that completing games when I was a kid felt, back when my dexterity was in its growth stage. If you’re a fan of the genre, this entry is definitely worth your time if you have the patience to get there.

To hear me talk more about Outbuddies DX, be sure to check out Episode 300 of The Gaming Outsider Podcast around the 1:33:50 time stamp.

This review is based on an Xbox One copy of Outbuddies DX provided by Brown Betty for coverage purposes. It is also available for the Nintendo Switch.