SANNABI The Revenant | PC Preview

Let the anguish take control and swing for the fences. SANNABI The Revenant launches you over, under, and across the dystopian future with an agonizing vengeance. I’ve really fallen in love with the platformers recently published by Neowiz, such as Metal Unit and Skul: The Hero Slayer, which I had the pleasure to review. So when I caught wind of this project, developed by Wonder Potion, my heart leapt with anticipation. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

Bring the Pain

You are a retired veteran soldier, who has gone away from the violence to a quiet life with your young daughter. Being a father is amazing, and the memories you create with your daughter are priceless. Life is bliss. Until you get a visit out of nowhere from someone in your past… who brings a pain that will soon become your driving force.

Making Web-slinging Heroes Jealous

SANNABI is a 2D action-platformer, but not like any other I remember playing. So far, in this demo version of the game, the enemies aren’t actually your main concern, the environment is. Not with spewing balls of lava or with bodies of water to drown in, but just by being itself. Sure, there are a few enemies here and there that you need to take care of, but I found myself being killed by the landscape I was trying to latch onto (or land on) more often than not.

This introduces the most difficult aspect of the game for me: the platforming is done mostly by swinging. Your chain-hook prosthetic arm gives you the ability to latch on to most of the surfaces from a distance, so you’ll use it to literally fly across the screen. Some of the objects you latch onto will let you redirect yourself off of them, giving it a controllable pinball feel.

Swinging from one platform to the next sounds serene and calming, right? Not in SANNABI. This game takes the concept, represented in my mind most by a friendly neighborhood kid in a red and blue jumpsuit, and smashes it into a mixer with bolts of body-jolting electricity and break-neck speed. Which is where the difficulty comes in. Most times I was swinging so fast I had hardly enough (if any at all) time to react and shoot my chain-hook at the next ledge. And if that wasn’t difficult enough, some of the surfaces are too sheer to grab onto, or even electrocuted. Partner this with insta-deaths when touching electricity, and a very low threshold to take damage from enemies, and this is one of the more difficult games to get the hang of in recent memory.

Cyber-Retro

This demo version of SANNABI takes place in MAGO. The city of MAGO is a dark, neon-lit technological metropolis set in a retro graphics aesthetic. From what you recall, the city was run by a criminal faction when you were an active soldier. Over the 2 ½ hours I spent there for this demo, I felt enveloped by the dark atmosphere, like a vigilante launching myself over buildings in a permanent nightfall. The music was very “cyber-esque” and set the perfect backdrop to the stage.

Final Verdict

SANNABI: The Revenant’s demo was a really fun experience. This small taste of the story has me excitedly anticipating the full release of the game. However, the action and mechanics applied were extremely difficult to wrap my fingers around. I’ve never been good with fast paced games on the keyboard, because my fingers usually move off of the keys due to excitement. This problem came out in full force as I played through this demo. The ability to play with a controller is there, but  it only made things even more difficult. It uses the same controls to move your character as it does to aim your chain-arm. The option to customize the configuration would make the experience a million times better. This being considered, though, I still really enjoyed this experience, and look forward to more. I’m hyped to swing for the fences in the full game.

To hear me talk more about SANNABI: The Revenant, be sure to listen to Episode 337 of The Gaming Outsider Podcast.

This preview is based on a demo of SANNABI: The Revenant, which is available on Steam till March 18th. The full game releases at a future date yet to be announced as of the date of this writing.