ABSURDIKA

I went into ABSURDIKA expecting something rough around the edges, and what I found was something that feels genuinely personal in a way that most budget platformers don't even attempt. Denis Lutsenko built this solo, and that one-person fingerprint is visible in every pixel: the hand-drawn art, the deliberately weird premise, the old-school soundtrack that carries an emotional weight the gameplay sometimes cannot. It is a 2D action platformer built around psychological unease, and for a few of its ten levels, it actually earns that premise. The setup is deliberately cryptic. An ordinary commute, a blinding flash, and suddenly you are holding a chainsaw in an alien world that may or may not exist inside your own head. The chainsaw is your only tool, carrying two modes of attack: close-range slashing and a limited supply of thrown blades for ranged kills. It is a stripped-back combat system that forces you to think about spacing rather than simply button-mashing. Boss encounters gate your progression and occasionally introduce new wrinkles to keep things from going completely static. The soundtrack, which the developer clearly put genuine care into, pulses through these fights with a retro grit that elevates the atmosphere several notches above what the visuals alone would suggest. Here is where honesty matters, though. The crystal-collection mechanic that gates level progression becomes genuinely opaque in the mid-game, when the wrong crystal choice can wall you behind barriers with no exit except a pit of instant-death spikes. The jump physics sit on the floaty side of the dial, which takes a few levels to internalise, and enemy placement occasionally puts opponents in positions where reaching them is simply not possible. These are not charming rough edges; they are friction that works against the player rather than challenging them fairly. There are also only a handful of distinct enemy types across the whole run, and the boss fights, while present, don't always deliver the escalation the premise seems to be building toward. Accessibility options are absent entirely. Where ABSURDIKA genuinely succeeds is in its atmosphere and its compact ambition. The game knows it is short, and it does not overstay its welcome. There is a hidden ending worth hunting, a narrative thread about suppressed conflict and inner demons that never becomes heavy-handed, and a hand-drawn aesthetic that carries a sincerity you rarely find in the budget tier. For players who are drawn to small, strange games made by one person working through something real, there is something worth experiencing here, provided you can make peace with its mechanical inconsistencies.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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