Kova Is A Familiar Game With Lots of Promise

The term metroidvania is an awful one, yet it is one that when spoken, gives gamers a definitive idea of what a game is all about. For those out of the loop, the term refers to a game similar in style to that of the Metroid or Castlevania games, a two dimensional, open world platform-based action-adventure.

We’ve seen plenty of indie games use this format successfully over the past few years. Personally. I loved Cave Story (but then again who didn’t) so I was thrilled when I had the opportunity to play a small snippet of Kova: a side scrolling sci-fi RPG from Black Hive Media.

Right from the off, the game feels very familiar, playing like a mixture of Metroid 90’s classic PC title Abuse with a little Terraria thrown in for good measure. The demo I played saw me attempting to repair my spaceship. Travelling through caves of an alien world sees me finding some resources which allowed me to build ammo, stamina or health packs. I can see this making levels much more tactical in the full release.

The controls threw me at first. While I played the game using a gamepad, it felt similar to Abuse in terms of how the game is played. The left thumbstick moves the character around, but is also used to move the weapon around. It feels weird at first, but soon becomes like second nature. Holding the left trigger allows you to stop and focus where you want to fire.

The game has a gorgeous 2D hand drawn aesthetic, with beautifully designed backgrounds and foregrounds draw you into Kova’s worlds. It manages to make the 2D plane feel like just a small part of a much larger world. I only spent a very brief amount of time with Kova and I really cannot wait for the game’s full release – Black Hive have done a wonderful job at leaving me wanting more.

Kova is into the last few hours of its Kickstarter campaign, so if you really want to see more you may want to support the game and the developers. If funded, Kova is planned for release in 2018 on PC, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.