The Messenger Reviews
The Messenger executes the perfect experience of play, narrative, and style.
If you have not experienced The Messenger yet, there is no better time than now. Its unique and witty take on a tried and true genre is challenging and fun with nice replayability. Never frustrating and always asking you to improve your platforming abilities, the 2D platformer is one of the best of recent years.
An instant classic, The Messenger is one you will not want to miss.
It seems as if it is impossible to break away from this game. Don't even think about ignoring the magic of messenger!
Review in Persian | Read full review
The Messenger is a unique and enjoyable 2D platformer with a strong personality and exciting gameplay, and its fine-tuned appearance on the PS4 is a welcome one. The first half of the game is worthy of unfettered praise, but the experience takes a hefty blow at the halfway point from a failed attempt at expanding the scope. This aside, it remains a lovingly conceived game and is well worth playing through on this basis, but its flaws prevent it from going down as a true classic. In light of the fact that this is the first game by Sabotage, it's fair to say that the studio's future is bright.
A game made by people who love the medium in which they work, they have not hesitated to reflect it on the screen and that love shows. A magnificent level design, an outstanding graphic finish and a combination of retro and current gameplay make the game of Thierry Boulanger one of the best indies you will find on your PS4.
The Messenger is a nostalgic bomb and a very solid action platformer. If you love Ninja Gaiden and Mega Man, and you want a new, yet friendlier experience in the genre, this is the game you’re looking for.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The Messenger is a great example of "old school platform". It's fun to play, challenging but never frustrating, with good graphics and an excellent soundtrack.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Messenger is a retro-styled old school challenge that starts off easy but will soon test any player's hidden ninja skills. This is a multi-genre homage to some real classics that manages to feel like a long lost gem.
The Messenger is without a doubt a game that gamers should not pass up on. I very much enjoyed every aspect of the game from the hilarious banter between the Messenger and the shopkeeper to the platforming and the boss fights. I cannot see any one aspect of the game I did not enjoy. If this is the first game made by Sabotage Studio, then I would say that they have a bright future ahead of them in the games industry.
After several hours of dying and dying again the game gives you reason to think it’s all over before it just isn’t, and this could throw some people off. It certainly did me, whilst it’s no bother at all to keep playing The Messenger the pacing felt a little strange in the closing moments, and there’s a fair amount of backtracking to be getting on with. Fortunately this allows you to head back to old levels that have a 16-bit remix that you wouldn’t have seen before, which makes it worthwhile all the more.
Resolutely challenging without ever being unfair, frequently gut-bustingly humorous and stuffed with all manner of unexpected twists and turns, The Messenger one of the most essential platformers on PS4. It really is that simple.
Just go out and buy this amazing game now. It’s brilliant, funny, well made and nostalgic. Its soundtrack is to die for, it’s gameplay simple yet technical and the whole presentation on offer deserves the highest praise. Its characters and dialogue are well written and comical, it points fun at itself, at video game culture and it’s delightful.
An inspired homage to old school Ninja Gaiden games, with a clever blending of genres and near perfect retro graphics and music.
Just as surprising as the plot twists is the entertainment provided by The Messenger's dialogues. The gameplay is great and represents an evolution of the games that it takes inspiration from, but it's the unforeseen events, in the good sense, that makes this journey fantastic.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The Messenger is a rock solid action platformer that balances out its retro stylings with modern touches and brilliantly slick controls. Blasting through the lengthy story is compelling, as new story beats and abilities are thrown into the mix. It perhaps flies a little too close to the sun later on as you hunt down the final few collectibles, but by and large, it's a cloud-stepping joy. Fans of 2D action games should have a blast with this, and that's a message we're happy to pass along.
The Messenger is a game that, despite being heavily influenced by the classics, should be played by all. It has very few flaws and is good through and through. Its art direction is stunning, its soundtrack is exceptional, its level design is marvellous and its gameplay is intuitive, but it's not as innovative as it should be.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The Messenger has a unique spin that sets it apart from other games and yet, ironically, it lacks an identity of its own. As a modern Ninja Gaiden game it’s excellent, but it only maintains that for half the game. The other half is a faint-hearted attempted at a Metroidvania that never quite works. I thoroughly enjoyed eight to nine hours of my twelve-hour playthrough. The other three or four were a little more tedious than I would have liked but that shouldn’t entirely negate a brilliant platformer with plenty to offer even in a year that’s been chock full of throwback retro platformers.
The Messenger is a marvel of a game in the form of tributes to classical 8 and 16-bit series, with accompanying styles to match. With its surprisingly involving and hilarious plot, The Messenger manages to feature both plenty of action and exploration in a retro style and to grab the player's attention to its events in a way that few games of a similar style do.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The Messenger is one of the most successful contemporary takes on 80s and 90s platforming I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Where many games attempt to cash in on easy nostalgia plays and fall short of impressing anybody, The Messenger wholeheartedly embraces the design philosophies from the era of its inspiration and uses them as a framework for experimentation rather than a set of guidelines to be ignored as often as they're followed.