It is inarguably a great time for 2D platformer fans, particularly those who prefer the Metroid and Symphony of the Night-inspired variety. Steamworld Dig 2, Dead Cells, Sundered, and many more all bring something different to the loose genre’s table. So, too, does the recently released Iconoclasts, even though I’m not sure I’m picking up absolutely every idiosyncrasy it’s putting down.
None of that uncertainty applies to the game’s look and feel, though. Iconoclasts is set in a lovely, colorful dystopia, with expressive sprites and bombastic effects to match. Traversing the splashy jungles, caves, seascapes, and sci-fi fortresses feels just right, too—no pixel feels wasted; no jump or attack too unwieldy. There’s a sense of meticulous technical perfection to Iconoclasts that likely reflects its 10-year production by solo developer Joakim "konjak" Sandberg.
As Robin, the unlicensed mechanic player-character, you begin with just a wrench and a rapid-fire stun gun, but slowly, inevitably, you gather new tools like bombs and an electric overcharge for melee attacks. These unlock new areas and upgrades in the finest Metroid/Castlevania style, though the find-items-to-progress concept is stretched a bit thinner here than in, say, last year’s Metroid: Samus Returns. New equipment is few and far between, and entire multi-hour zones center more or less on a single item.
So while the game is certainly structured around finding new items to explore previously visited areas, there’s greater breathing room for things like a wide selection of bosses and a heaping helping of story.
The biggest, bestest battles
Iconoclasts’ 20-odd bosses are the real treat at the heart of the quality run-and-gun gameplay, blending the grandiose art and hefty feel of the combat nicely. My personal favorite battle was against a multistage, underground train. The fight had me juking its lunging attacks at high speed while being dragged around the circular arena on grind rails. Getting through was a matter of exposing and tearing down the train’s weak points with the help of an assist character, one of many that pops up to help with the biggest bad guys. Beating most of the game’s bosses involves getting into the rhythm of bouncing between those assistants’ skills and Robin’s, and that back-and-forth tug could easily be the basis for an entire separate game on its own. It’s just that fun.
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The game's one-off puzzles are unique and brief enough to give it a good bit of variety.
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Fast-paced action fills time other Metroidvanias would dedicate to lots of new abilities.
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Smaller, more common puzzles, like moving boxes, are a little fiddly.
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There's quite a variety in the zones you explore.
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There's a heady story about religion—among other things—struggling to be heard here.
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Some of the writing just feels... off.
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Break out your graph paper. It's one of those games.
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Riding rails and ziplines is also fiddly but feels cool when it works.
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Iconoclasts isn't difficult, but there's something weighty and satisfying about its generous combat.
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Most of the game's upgrades are conveniences, rather than game-changers.
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Some enemies can't be bested by weapons alone.
There are a handful of technical quirks that plague the game’s otherwise smooth flow, though. The aforementioned rail-riding, for instance, requires Robin to latch onto specially marked points with her wrench. But Iconoclasts is very picky about the angle of her swing. Sometimes you’ll watch her chosen weapon swing right through the latch point, without actually making contact, because the game wants you to hit it perfectly horizontally.
This, and a couple of imprecise crate-stacking puzzles, might feel like rather small pieces to nitpick in such a polished overall package. But since the whole game is built around just a handful of abilities, those small issues build up to legitimate gripes. If there were more upgrades and puzzle types to enjoy between the heavier action scenes, there would be less chance to really focus on these few technical imperfections.
A missing pillar
Less quibbling, and more outright damning, is the story. There’s a lot more of it than the retro aesthetic would imply, and it’s not the easiest thing to follow. That’s in part because, true to its name, Iconoclasts wades in the complicated waters of religion and rebellion. Robin’s unauthorized occupation as a mechanic sounds innocuous on its own, but it’s an offense punishable by death in her world. A villainous theocracy, under the thumb of a messiah called Mother, is hot on her heels throughout the game.
Complication after complication follows that fairly basic premise. There’s conflict over a vanishing fuel source, a cadre of semi-immortal super-humans, pirates, space travel, natural disasters, familial drama, ideological debate, and more. With enough technique and the proper pacing, these disparate elements might have come together nicely. In Iconoclasts, they’re a jumble of half-formed opinions—a stream of consciousness loosely tied together through overly obvious metaphors for real-world issues.
Maybe if Iconoclasts just seized on one or two of these motifs with the same meticulous focus as the rest of the game, it could have given them the time and attention to give them weight. Instead it’s just confusing. Some dry, oddly stilted dialogue does not help matters, either—every fifth line feels like it was inexpertly localized into English (which may indeed be the case, as Sandberg is based in Sweden).
Unlike my minor technical carps, these aren’t isolated issues. This is a very talkative game with not much to actually say. So its mélange of hard-to-parse messages is harder to overlook than a couple of imprecise box puzzles. Which is a shame, because a dense, character-heavy plot is what should set Iconoclasts apart from its recent competition.
Dead Cells looks and plays just as well as Iconoclasts, in its own way. Steamworld Dig 2 has more to discover and a lot more charm. Search for “Metroidvania” on Steam right now and you’ll find half a hundred more games with similar arguments in their favor.
That’s not to say Iconoclasts is bad. The wonderfully well-tuned bosses alone might be worth your while. But in a currently crowded pantheon of exploration-heavy 2D platformers, Iconoclasts is one that doesn’t fire on every cylinder. That alone might be an excuse to check out your other options.
The good:
- A cleanly colorful dystopia to explore.
- (Mostly) pitch-perfect combat and platforming.
- Big, bombastic bosses with a lot of fun moving parts.
The bad:
- Lots of clunky, jumbled story without a consistent tone.
- Dry and stilted dialogue.
- A handful of imprecise puzzles.
- Not much variety among upgrades.
The ugly:
- I can’t decide if I agree with the game’s politics, because I can’t quite tell what they are through the messy writing.
Verdict: If you’ve already burned through your pile of Metroid-likes, Iconoclasts is solid fuel for the fire. Try it.
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