The Messenger Reviews
Sabotage Studio's debut title, The Messenger, is an impressive evolution for the platforming genre. It takes risks that at times work in its favor but also create frustrating mechanics for players to look past. The melding of 8-bit and 16-bit aesthetics into a love letter for the NES era of platformers is nothing short of genius, but the style outweighs the gameplay in some areas, including the difficulty level.
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 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.
Inspired by the 8-bit and 16-bit action-platformers of yesteryear, The Messenger is an ambitious and well-balanced side-scroller that's as difficult as it is funny.
The Messenger is a terrific throwback to action platformers like Ninja Gaiden with welcome twists. While a mid-game identity crisis detracts from the experience, it's still an adventure worth taking
An inspired homage to old school Ninja Gaiden games, with a clever blending of genres and near perfect retro graphics and music.
When you're fully geared up and The Messenger is hitting you with brand new stages and challenges that you haven't seen before, The Messenger is an amazing, must-play experience. Taken as a whole, it's brought down only by fetch quests that make The Messenger last several hours longer than it feels like it should.
The Messenger is a brilliant action platformer (...or is it a metroidvania?), full of irony and pretty difficult jumps. The time shift between the 8-bit past and the 16-bit "future" is what makes the game shine - even with its low replayability.
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 a finely crafted homage to the kind of game that first introduced many avid gamers to a lifelong hobby.
How difficult it is to make all this coexist in a single product, yet The Messenger succeeds, moreover with a maniacal attention to detail and an overall harmony
The Messenger is an almost entirely well-made Genremix, which has his issues with the difficulty in the second half, but thanks to the humour, the flawless gameplay, the lovely artwork and the score the title manages to succeed in every discipline. Jump N`Run and Indiegaming Fans can`t go around this one
Review in German | Read full review
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 an essential for lovers of the design of the classics of the NES and SNES, with a high level of difficulty and a story full of irony, sarcasm and above all memorable characters.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
2018 has been a great year for retro-style exploratory platformers, as seen with Celeste and Dead Cells. The Messenger continues that trend with aplomb with smooth controls, great presentation, and plenty of challenging and exciting levels to explore. It’s much more fair than its inspirations, but you will still die a lot (my final count clocked in at well over 300 and I payed over 1000 gems). If you love classic gaming with new twists, be sure to spread the message that The Messenger is another indie keeper.
The Messenger exudes charisma and is wrapped with fantastic control and a development full of surprises, with a difficulty curve that few titles match. In the second half of the game there are somewhat uglier details that do not make the set worse but they do leave a feeling that it could have been a little better.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
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 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.